a r t i s t : Max Richter
t i t l e : 24 Postcards In Full Colour
d a t e : 2008
l a b e l : FatCat
c a t : CD13-07
s o u r c e : CDDA
g e n r e : Ambient / Modern Classical / Home Listening
r l s. d a t e : Sep/2008
t r a c k s : 24
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 41,5 MB
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Following eighteen months after Edinburgh-based pianist /
composer Max RichterÆs last album comes the release of the
gorgeous, intriguingly framed Æ24 Postcards In Full ColourÆ.
RichterÆs fourth album is a dazzling conceptual exercise of
great beauty and emotional resonance. Certainly his most
concise, Æ24 PostcardsàÆmay also be MaxÆs most coherent and
compelling work to date. Beautifully played, richly textured
and detailed, the album foregrounds MaxÆs sheer class as a
composer and producer.
An attempt an exploration of the ringtone as a vehicle for
music performance , æ24 PostcardsàÆ is an experimental work
made up of 24 classically-composed ringtones, set to be
premiΦred in various gallery spaces. The premiΦre is intended
to be in the form of a series of installations where
pre-registered audience members switch on their phones to
receive SMS messages, each message alert playing back one or
more of the tracks, so making up the performance. In tandem
with this release, will be a micro-website hosting 24
photographic images, one accompanying each track. As Max
explains: ôThinking about how we listen to music today, I
wondered why it is that ringtones have so far been treated as
unfit for creative musicà Who says ringtones have to be bad?..
ItÆs like saying LPs or CDs are bad û its just a mediumà.ö
ôBecause the piece is a collection of tones, where I have no
control of the order, I made a structure that holds together
by use of shared material û like a cloud of pieces, or a
handful of confetti, or a constellation of fragments û to be
navigated as you likeàö Max views the writing process in
similar terms - shuffling basic elements into new
constellations. The palette Max limited himself to consists of
string quintet; solo piano; 16 track 2 inch tape; transistors;
found shortwave radio; vinyl clicks, dust, scratches and
rumble; and acoustic guitars. The players on the album are
Louisa Fuller (violin),Robert Mc Fall (violin), Natalia Bonner
(violin), John Metcalfe (Viola), Ian Burdge (Cello), Chris
Worsey (Cello), Sua Lee (Cello), Preston Reed (Guitar), and
Richter himself on piano.
Fragmentary and partial by nature, these 24 brief tracks work
as a varied collection of evocative miniatures - each offering
a glimpse into potentially much larger pieces. The longest
track here is just under three minutes, whilst the majority
clock in at around just sixty seconds. Each bearing its own
particular weight and measure, these haunting vignettes come
across as a series of sketches on the (fugitive) nature of
time and memory, stitched together to form a series of
jump-cuts and foldbacks in time (the album continually
reprising itself and filling the listener with a sense of
deja-vu).
As though extracting the absolute essence, simple, plaintive
piano and string melodies - no excess, no waste, pure
concentrate - butt up against passages of rich, borderzone
ambience - radio static / voices leaking through dense,
shifting drones. At points recalling the likes of Boards Of
Canada, Bibio, and Gas (in terms of depth / grain rather than
sound or style), at others Minimalism or the Elizabethan
instrumental music of Henry Purcell, thereÆs also something
about its nature that brings to mind authors like WG Sebald,
Marcel Proust and filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky.
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01-The road is a grey tape [01:01]
02-H in New England [01:56]
03-This picture of us. P. [01:41]
04-Lullaby from the westcoast sleepers [02:05]
05-When the northern lights / Jasper and Louise [01:03]
06-Circles from the Rue Simon û Crubellier [01:06]
07-Cascade NW by W [01:12]
08-A sudden Manhattan of the mind [02:52]
09-In Louisville at 7 [01:03]
10-Cathodes [01:03]
11-I was just thinking [01:04]
12-A song for H / far away [02:09]
13-Return to Prague [01:02]
14-Broken symmetries for Y [01:00]
15-Berlin by overnight [01:31]
16-Cradle song for A (interstate B3) [02:14]
17-Kierling / doubt [00:52]
18-From 553 W Elm Street, Logan Illinois (snow) [01:06]
19-Tokyo riddle song [01:00]
20-The Tartu piano [02:09]
21-Cold fusion for G [00:37]
22-32 Via San Nicolo [01:25]
23-Found song for P. [02:33]
24-H thinks a journey [00:57]
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34:41 min