Of Water and Ice
DJ Spooky (free download)
Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky) continues his MICA residency through spring 2014. He’s reportedly working on a new book and an opera that he will debut in Baltimore sometime in the fall. He visited Antarctica a few years ago and, during a recent residency at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, created this suite of electronic music inspired by the vast tracts of uninhabited territory he encountered. It also functions as a companion piece to Miller’s The Book of Ice, which comes highly recommended.
Atlantic Guitar Quartet
Atlantic Guitar Quartet (self-released)
This local quartet plays mesmeric chamber music that’s enchanting and peculiar, but never precious. These five compositions——three of them written specifically for the group by Christopher Gainey, Ronald Pearl, and David Smooke——radiate an intensity that has nothing to do with volume or the layering of instruments. Instead, they draw upon an internal combustion that smolders without igniting. It’s a perfect match for music that wafts and curls, and, ultimately, lingers so hauntingly.
