Times are tight here at Records. Time is tight, moreso. Cary is incredibly busy right now, and I’m currently spending a good deal of time interning at an audio mastering facility in NYC. What’s nice about this situation for me is that I get over 3 hours of train riding for my commute, which means that I get a TON of time to listen to music.

When I was living in Arizona my big time for listening was my 20 minute bikeride to and from school. This was adequate, but involved terrible headphones and, because of the nature of my activity, I was not in a place to listen to music with dynamics or anything without a sense of vibrancy and motion.

BUT NOW! When I’m terribly exhausted from my day in New York, I can sit on the train, stare out into the fleeting daylight (or my own reflection due to the night), and listen to more, well, contenplative stuff. Like Scott Walker! And Henri Dutilleux! Hooray!

Scott Walker – The Drift (2006) is excellent. Exhausting. A lot of textural work in the arrangements. I found myself desiring something with a bit more motion. The compositions feel like set pieces for the words. Almost as if he wrote the words, set the words to a melody, then simply decorated the sonic space behind the melody. This technique works wonderfully and creates some amazing moments, but I honestly wish the record had more variety. Then again, I’ve only given the record a handful of listens (only once all the way through) and maybe there is more subtlety than I’ve picked up on. I may write more on this soon.

Henri Dutilleux – Tout Un Monde Lointain is also excellent. It’s a Cello Concerto from 1970. I love Dutilleux. I love his melodies. Perfectly pleasing, yet wonderfully angular. I’ve been moving backwards through this piece. 5 movements, each one about 4 or 5 minutes long, so not a very exhausting piece. But I started listening backwards. And I love it. I’ve made it to the 3rd Movement (Houles). Delicious. Sadly not much more comes to mind. Still a good deal of details to catch with this one. So might write more about this soon, too!

Otherwise, updates will be minor in the coming weeks. Sad! But they will exist. We will persist! This Records is forever.