Land of Winter makes best of the year lists from the New York Times, Boston Globe and Gramophone.

“At once vigorously abstract and vividly atmospheric, this musical almanac by Ireland’s most important living composer evokes the changing seasons with glinting high harmonics, restless bass wanderings and shifting soundscapes. Austere on the surface, the music shimmers with subtle energy — like a gray sky that reveals unexpected gradations of color.” New York Times

“In virtually every musical facet — timbre, harmony, structure — it’s shockingly original, while also being compulsively listenable, particularly in Alarm Will Sound’s muscular performance. Boston Globe

Land of Winter was also the focus of a New Sounds show on WNYC, available here.

Land of Winter has been nominated for two Grammys: Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance and Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Writing about the nomination, Nonesuch Records says:

Land of Winter, performed by the composer's longtime collaborators Alarm Will Sound and conductor Alan Pierson, explores the subtleties of Ireland’s seasons via twelve connected sections representing the months of the year. "It is the varying quality of light that truly demarcates the seasons," Dennehy says, "from the shorter days of grey or piercing light in the winter to the warmer but mercurial light of summer days that at solstice stretch almost to midnight. I like this play between light and time, and it is the major inspiration behind the piece."