There’s real talent here. Galaxy seems a bit too much in love with its concept (kind of like Wagner), and as a result goes on a bit longer than it has any right to, but it’s full of evocative sounds and contains some imaginative motivic material. The idea, as you already might have guessed, is to create a coherent musical structure out of the shape of a spiral galaxy, and Anders Brodsgaard does it by deploying a varied range of materials, including drones and both tonal and atonal harmony, in clusters of varying length. It takes a while to get going, and even longer to finish (42 minutes to be exact), but along the way there’s more than enough to capture the attention, and Brodsgaard’s handling of color and sonority is impressive.
It’s even more so in Monk’s Mixtures, based on the music and playing style of Thelonious Monk. This three-movement piece really does sustain its length, with each part (Moving, Walking (passacaglia), and Flying) living up to its billing. There are some moments where the music seems to demand a bit more in the way of a tune, but then Monk himself wasn’t exactly a melodist in the traditional sense. Excellent playing and vivid recorded sound make this a disc worth exploring for fans of contemporary music, particularly of the “soundscape” variety.
