…throughout the recording, the two opulently creative performers consistently bring out the best in each other
- Joshua Rosenblum (Opera News)

…earthy and immediate with such a wide range…unusual and effective… infectiously lively performances…
—Andrew McGregor, BBC Radio 3, The Record Review

A rare ensemble combination of voice and violin, Duo della Luna presents an album that is sonically beautiful and contextually adventurous. Mangetsu is dreamy and poetic yet cutting edge and experimental. The thread that connects a variety of compositions on this album is the unique ensemble sound throughout: deep, eloquent, potent. Susan Botti (voice/composer) and Airi Yoshioka (violin) venture into themes of life and creation, imagination, female power and love with a magical artistic rapport…Yoshioka’s violin playing is simply gorgeous, the colours and the precision equally alluring…There is a certain kind of magic that happens when the music is expressed in so few voices. The sound becomes unadorned and pure, and these two performers take full advantage of it.
- Ivana Popvic (The Whole Note)

“…uniquely intriguing album…The performances are uniformly excellent and are captured in vivid, well-balanced sound. Adventurous ears are very likely to be tickled and emotions stirred.”
- Huntley Dent (Fanfare)

Mangetsu (2021)

Duo della Luna (Susan Botti, soprano/composer; Airi Yoshioka, violin) releases Mangetsu, centered around the multi-movement title piece that Botti wrote that catalyzed the duo's formation. Botti's sensual setting of otherworldly texts is contrasted with her inventive arrangements of Bartók's famous violin duos that excavate original folk song texts, as well as the iconic American song, "Wayfaring Stranger," and two Italian traditional songs. Kaija Saariaho's Changing Light and Linda Dusman's Triptych of Gossips round out this collection which features the duo’s seamlessly integrated and balanced ensemble style through text settings that point to the timeless link between song and text in folkloric traditions.

Out now on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, Google Play, and more!

…there is something quite emotional going on in all of these pieces and performances… There is a certain feeling of timelessness about this recording, in two
senses. First, the music itself, except for the Bartók pieces, seems to emerge from some timeless and unnamed ether in which is stored all the feelings of women throughout the centuries; and second, one feels as if time itself is suspended while listening to Duo Della Luna. They give you something that no other musicians, not even any other voice-violin combination I’ve ever heard, can bring you. Their performances touch the heart as well as the mind… This is truly spiritual music in a way that I’ve seldom heard in my entire life. And the feelings they evoke are deep, sensual, and sometimes painful, but always profoundly human. You really need to hear this recording. There’s nothing else like it in the entire world.
—© 2021 Lynn René Bayley (The Art Music Lounge blog)