Hammock - Asleep in the Downlights - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The goal was to push my brain to places it didn't want to go. The idea was to not have any idea to keep myself confused about what I was doing, frontman Will Sheff says about Okkervil Rivers newest album. The resulting record, I AM VERY FAR, is a startling break from anything this band has done before. By turns terrifying and joyous, violent and serene, grotesque and romantic, it's a celebration of forces beyond our control. On I AM VERY FAR, Sheff emerges not only as a songwriter of the highest caliber, but a producer and arranger of singular vision. Abandoning the tidy conceptual arcs of Okkervil Rivers previous albums, I AM VERY FAR is a monolithic, darkly ambiguous work, one that doesn't readily offer up it's secrets. Album Tracks 1. The Valley 2. Piratess 3. Rider 4. Lay of the Last Survivor 5. White Shadow Waltz 6. We Need a Myth 7. Hanging from a Hit 8. Show Yourself 9. Your Past Life As a Blast 10. Wake and Be Fine 11. The Rise

End, good; everything, good. Wolfgang Carl Briegel placed these very consoling words at the center of the dedication that he formulated in 1671 for his Zwölff madrigalische Trost-Gesänge for five or six voices together with basso continuo. After Briegel had served without interruption over two decades at Gotha's ducal court, he resigned from his post as court music director and solemnly bade farewell to his employer, the local lord Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha, with the publication of these twelve songs of lament. Born in Königsberg, Upper Franconia, Briegel received his initial instruction in music from Johann Andreas Herbst. Through this teacher and through Johann Erasmus Kindermann, he made indirect contact with the latest Italian styles of composition and performance. His Trost-Gesänge in very large part involve the setting of Biblical verses in the form of so-called Spruch-Motetten, in which each phrase of the sacred text is given it's own musical delineation. On the whole, the collection exhibits numerous original settings of Biblical and poetic material. Some organ fugues by Briegel have been included in the work series - one in each of the eight church modes. They are very short works, but the themes are richly varied and lend expression to the special characteristics and qualities of the various modes. The interpretation by the Polyharmonique Ensemble makes this rediscovery an absolute listening delight! Album Tracks 1. Wer Gott Vertraut A6 2. Ach Herr Lehre Doch Mich A6 3. Valet Will Ich Dir Geben A5 4. Ach Wie Gar Nichts A6 5. Fuga Primi Toni 6. Fuga Secundi Toni 7. Du Aber Daniel A5 8. Fuga Terzi Toni 9. Fuga Quarti Toni 10. Ich Habe Dich Ein Klein Augenblick Verlassen A6 11. Fuga Quinti Toni 12. Si Bona Suscepimus A5 13. Fuga Sexti Toni 14. Der Gerechte A6 15. Fuga Septimi Toni 16. Fuga Octavi Toni 17. Wir Sind Getrost

4-panel digipak, 1 x CD, insert Album Tracks 1. Circular As Our Way 2. Silencia 3. When It Hurts to Remember 4. Afraid to Forget 5. Saudade 6. In the Shattering of Things 7. We Try to Make Sense of It All 8. Slowly You Dissolve 9. Fascinans 10. Life Is Life 11. Without Form and Void