Thrice Parting for Yangguan is based on a Chinese poem and song from the Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei. The poem depicts friends about to part ways. Yangguan (“Yang Gate”) was a pass near the western end of the Great Wall where an oasis town was the westernmost cultural and administrative center. For an official traveling west, this was the last stop before entering the foreign lands of Central Asia. When I first heard this haunting traditional melody, I was inspired to set this melody in the context of new music, like a good friend entering foreign territory.
A work of beautiful, pointillist guitar from Martyn Heyne, the moving songs on “Electric Intervals” are made of tiny pinpricks of sound. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 11, 2017
Fragile cello and piano recall the bleak childhood of brothers Sebastian and Daniel Selke spent in a large prefab estate in East Berlin. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 10, 2017
There’s a quiet beauty to this remix album of compositions by Michael Vincent Waller, with contributions from JLin, Prefuse 73, & more. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 1, 2024
These almost heartbreakingly gentle felted piano compositions have the delicacy and loveliness of slow-falling snow. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 30, 2023