The Internet is a wonderful thing, particularly it seems, for finding new classical music. Until recently I hadn’t realised how much contemporary composers had embraced t’interweb, assuming unfairly that their chosen musical discipline indicated a lack of technological aptitude… How wrong I was! Myspace is veritably alive with classical music, a great many young composers posting interesting, unusual and often compelling examples of their work. One such is Caleb Burhans. Have a listen to ‘the things left unsaid’, an extremely rousing piece for several cellos, and then click on his friends’ pages and you’re off.
http://www.myspace.com/cburhans
A favourite of mine among this new (to me at least) breed of composers is Nico Muhly. He is quite a prominent figure, having contributed arrangements to the work of Bjork and more recently Sam Amidon, on the excellent album All Is Well.
The music he composes under his own name is really worth investigating. In 2007 he released Speaks Volumes, an album of chamber music (as you’ve never heard it before) – written and recorded in collaboration with Valgeir Sigurðsson of The Bedroom Community label – that consciously incorporates electronic sounds. Indicative of the composer’s all-embracing attitude and openness is the appearance of Antony Hegarty (of Antony and the Johnsons and Hercules and Love affair fame). His vocal blips are sampled and woven into the stirring melancholy of final track ‘Keep in Touch’. Many of his pieces – I particularly recommend ‘Seeing is Believing’ , the first performance of which I recently attended – can be listened to in the projects section of his website, which is itself regularly and often amusingly updated. A new album, Mothertongue, is slated for release in May.
Supporting many of these new musicians, especially those working in New York, is New Amsterdam Records. The label describes its genesis thusly: ‘New Amsterdam Records was formed as a haven for the young New York composers and performers whose music slips through the cracks between genres’. Their website has a extensive library of mp3s which are available to stream.
As well as all this classical music I have been listening to a folky musician called Lucie Wren, and a punky band who call themselves Past Lives.
Lucie Wren is from London (and some other places that sound like they must be in Wales). She has a beautiful voice that brings to mind What would the community think? – era Cat Power, and is not afraid to use the recorder – staple of primary school music lessons – to surprisingly good effect on woozily warm ‘patience’. Listen to this song and others here: www.myspace.com/luciewren.
Past Lives are a new band from Seattle. So new in fact that they don’t have any songs on their myspace, only live videos. The singer, Jordan Blilie, once of the now defunct Blood Brothers, presides over a band with bite and a fondness for distortion, but also an appetite for experimentation. The song ‘Beyond Gone’ exemplifies this, with its sampled xylophone pattern and occasionally dissonant guitar lines. Watch/listen here: www.myspace.com/pastlivesmusic.
Over and out.