Copland / Park Avenue Chamber Symphony - Symphonic Dances - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Danish composer, pianist and producer Asger Baden has made a name for himself as a film and TV series composer with his atmospheric music featured in world-acclaimed productions such as InchBreaking BadInch and InchThe WolfpackInch. After having worked on several collaborative projects and composing with the bands InchThe Crooked SpokeInch and InchCours LapinInch, Baden now releases his debut album of solo material, InchIf the music stops, they'll eat him upInch via Berlin-based tag Neue Meister. It invokes through it's nine tracks a sense of mysterious and highly visual storytelling. As is expected of a composer who has worked with cinema extensively, the music unfolds much like a motion picture, conjuring images that are rich and textured. It's as if Baden was painting a wide and vast musical room where the listener is invited to explore it's every nook and cranny, from soft percussive footsteps in the background, to the whispering rumbles of synthesizers just in front or the frail conversation of strings happening to the side. There's an overwhelming sense of openness and atmosphere to every sound, with a churchy echo delineating the space that surrounds them. There's definitely a lot of space for fantasy within InchIf the music stops, they'll eat him upInch, and much is left to the imagination of the listener. The album's title in itself begs a frightening question - Inchwho'll eat who up?Inch. The accompanying cover art imagery, by Danish illustrator John Kenn Mortensen, with depictions of creatures that - depending on the beholder - might be viewed as friendly or menacing, only amplifies the sense of reverie. Like all good pieces of art, it incites more questions than it formulates answers.

Copland / Corigliano / Lso / Stoltzman - Copland [COMPACT DISCS] date 10/23/2008

Subject to it's own Pitchfork documentary, listed in numerous prestigious Best Albums of the 90s lists, and destined to be re-discovered by continuous generations, THE LONESOME CROWDED WEST stands as the defacto Northwest indie-rock record. Originally released in 1997, it not only helped shape the sound that came to be associated with the American Pacific Northwest, but across these sprawling, wide-open 15 songs, Modest House helped redefine what was possible for guitar music. As such, THE LONESOME CROWDED WEST has often been mimicked, but it's awesome open-hearted existentialism and manic ambition has rarely been matched. A modern classic that demands reappraisal.