NPR’s All Things Considered explored recent classical releases on Sunday’s edition. Tom Huizenga, NPR’s classical music producer, presented everything from Bach recorded on the accordion by Galliano to Max Richter’s Infra and Tristan Perich’s 1-Bit Symphony.
Artist: Tristan Perich
Title: 1-Bit Symphony
Label: Cantaloupe Music
Genre: Electronic : Classical
Release Date: 8/24/10
UPC: 713746305420
From NPR: “This is a five-movement symphony that plays off a one-bit microchip — a kind of crazy 21st-century music box. Half of the beauty of the whole project is the design. Made by hand and housed in a clear plastic CD case, six plastic parts line up beside each other, connected by half-moon-shaped wires: a lithium battery, the size of a nickel; an on/off switch; the microchip that contains the symphony; a button to advance to the next movement; a volume wheel; and the port to plug in your headphones. You’ll probably either be fascinated by its textures, polyrhythms and small musical ideas, like me — or you’ll run away screaming.”
Max Richter
“infra 4″ (mp3)
from “Infra”
(Fat Cat Records)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
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More On This Album
From NPR: “I’ve really grown to love Max Richter’s music. He makes records almost by mistake, it seems. His last CD, 24 Postcards, was a set of evocative miniatures intended as cell-phone ringtones. This new record is actually a reworking of his ballet Infra, inspired by T.S. Eliot’s poem The Wasteland and composed for London’s Royal Ballet. I particularly like Richter’s use of shortwave radio signals, industrial rumbles, clicks and pops as an underlying bed for his gritty, forlorn soundscapes. There are also a few bittersweet, Michael Nyman-styled melodies that will stick in your head.”
