"Goldstein is one of the few composers who can consistently write totally abstract contemporary music that is both compelling and accessible." - Stereophile

"[Goldstein] takes us back to the earliest sense of why the seasons became so important for our sense of our humanness." - Mark Swed, LA Times

The Seasons: Vermont is a soundscape of Vermont as charted through the changes of its yearly soundings. It is a composition in four parts (Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring) for magnetic tape collage with an unspecified live instrumental/vocal ensemble. Though the actual composing of the music was completed between 1980 and 1982, it is the realization of a ten-year composition project. Goldstein listened closely and became attuned to what was the particular sound quality of each season in Vermont. He then took the sounds that he had recorded and made a tape collage which, for him, arrived at that particular, essential quality of each season. This recording is the complete, unedited premiere perfomance that took place on Feb. 26 1983 at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT. The booklet contains examples of the scores as well as excerpts from Goldstein's journals from 1977-1982.

"There are recordings of everything here, from birdsongs and gushing brooks, to chainsaws and persnickity car motors: all are used to evoke the seasonal changes one may experience during a typical year in rural Vermont. Along with the literal reproductions of scrunching snow, crickets, and old-fashioned brass bands, we are treated to the largely improvised commentary of a fine array of experimental players. - Cadence

This disc also includes a recording of Goldstein's Soundings for solo violin. Soundings are improvisations exploring the rich sound possibilities of the violin. Melodies of sound (timbre/texture/articulation) are created that evolve out of the interplay between the resonance of the violin and the gesture of the violinist.