Capsules: Nico Muhly & Helena Espvall + Masaki Batoh

Muhly has been a student and employee of Philip Glass since his sophomore year of college, and much of that influence shows in his work. He likes performances --in as many varied contexts as possible-- and adores repetition, sparse soundscapes and esoteric composition. He's worked on Bjork's albums, and favors 16th century English composers (particularly those who wrote religious, devotional pieces). His work is unique, obtuse and addictive, and his mentor Glass has said he has "a curious ear, a restless listening." On Mothertongue, we quickly find a fairly accurate representation of Muhly's general style, as collage-ish pieces combine traditional folk songs with samples, piano, knives thwacking against each other and absolutely astounding vocal treatments lending their aesthetics to the finished product. His affiliation with current great classical contemporaries (Glass, John Adams, Antony Hegarty and many others) gives the more pop-accessible pieces clarity, but his body of work includes dense, intricate arrangements and compositions that belong to a sort of non-denominational church of music theory. Mothertongue is haunting, comedic, challenging and undeniably beautiful. He has mastered a control of space and use, and urges the listener to absorb in their own time and according to their own willingness, it's just a pity that one can't choose to absorb it all at once. For more on Nico Muhly, read Rebecca Mead's New Yorker piece on him called "Eerily Composed", first published in February of this year.

Nico Muhly [Official] [MySpace]