I discovered Austin-based acoustic classical/experimental quintet Balmorhea from a post at Josh Spear and have been listening to their latest album, “All Is Wild, All Is Silent”, non-stop for the last week. They manage to make even my morning streetcar ride to work somehow feel emotionally windswept and epic.
I have a fetish for string instruments. For me, there’s something hypnotic and almost transformative about watching someone play the cello. Mixing all manners of strings – violin, cello, guitar, banjo, double bass – with piano and more, they create a universe of sound. It feels heavy yet it breathes, it’s enveloping yet it soars. It all heaves with a feeling of abandon and stillness, like the end of a very long journey.
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If you haven’t seen “Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” I’m sure you’d love it. Not only does it have a super-stringy soundtrack that’s similar to this, it also has this mesmerizing, tinted-glass sort of cinematography. Highly recommend.
So good! I loved seeing the Dears and Tallest Man On Earth on KEXP. It’s a decent station.
Ahh, I found them by listening to a gigantic collection of music from SXSW, and I definitely consider them to be one of the best musical finds recently. If you want to get a giant batch of free music, check out http://sites.google.com/site/sxsw2009torrent/.