Paraphrases
Christoph Berg
Facture Records.
SCQ Rating: 75%
A few weeks ago
while driving around Lake Huron with Nils Frahm’s Screws scoring the autumnal
blur, my wife asked what distinguishes post-classical music from the classical
genre. The question gave me a moment’s pause; I’ve never conversed with or read
an opinion that unearthed some discrepancy regarding what fit in the
post-classical canon and what didn’t. Yet I also couldn’t recall finding a
definition that ensured any of us knew what post-classical means.
The answer I
attempted then and will try to put more eloquently here is that people who
gravitate to post-classical music are looking for the grand emotional scale
that old world instrumentation can create, but from artists who are willing to
flirt with modern technology; less about structure and rigid playfulness, more
about mood, texture and evocation. With exception to the remixes attached to
its tail end, Paraphrases flirts with notions of electronic or rock music just
as seldom as Mr. Frahm’s lovely, surprise collection but both dedicate
themselves to richly somber (if a tad dry) explorations of texture.
The edge goes to Mr.
Berg, whose meditative string work and occasional found-sounds blur into warmly
organic drone pieces. As if catching traces of classical music in a state of
evaporation, tracks like “Interlude” and “Buildings At Night” suggest progressions
rather than treading headlong into them. And rounded out more vividly by “Quiet
Times At the Library” and “Falling Asleep” (in which the strings – jogging over
one another – seem hopelessly intent on staying focused), Paraphrases becomes a
beautiful soundtrack for remaining in stasis.
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