recital 2018
"I corralled a dream LP that I would want to listen to. Too smelly, too sweet. LP is mainly myself, Graham Lambkin, Madalyn Merkey & Zach Schwartz, but features contributions from a slew of people, all playing over my favorite augmented classical pieces. Limited LP edition coming spring 2018" - RECITAL
despite being (even) more subdued and twenty minutes shorter than SEAN MCCANN's 2016 standout MUSIC FOR PUBLIC ENSEMBLE -a proper magnum opus- i find this to be an (even) better work, grander to some extent, more intimate and indulgent but not overwhelming, playful yet brilliantly reserved
MFPE is a lot, an awful lot, sometimes too much if you aren't locked in for four sides' worth - SA streamlines and simplifies, filters and distills the best elements into a more digestible work that i find easier to get lost in, which is perhaps the single most crucial selling point for me when it comes to music like this
SA drifts on from where MFPE left off - an incredible abundance of space laced with angelic arias, chamber accompaniment, distorted splices and fragmented eavesdrop transmissions, acute "next age" weirdness - a most curious and thoroughly engaging free flowing stream of sub-consciousness, as MCCANN acknowledges - i don't think he has displayed such sublime subtlety since 2010-11 with understated works like FOUNTAINS, SKY IS FILLED and SINCERE WORLD, and those don't approach this level of organic detail
comparisons - last year's SARA SOLTAU cassette comes to mind, perhaps RAISING HOLY SPARKS' FOUR SACRED MOUNTAINS at some nth degree, always ENO's ambient oeuvre and OBSCURE curating (BUDD, BRYARS, NYMAN) - it's like AARON MARTIN semi-improvising over down-the-hall HILDEGARD VON BINGEN passages and BIG BLOOD snippets patchworked into a BOOKS style tapestry with some congregational synergy to the MICROPHONES' MOUNT EERIE - i guess that's what i hear, i mean MCCANN kinda seems beyond comparison at this point with his ever expanding and meandering root system, drawing and focusing lord knows what back toward his minimal neoclassical experimental framework
free download from the source (for now?)
http://www.recitalprogram.com/simple-affections/
