This Week’s Best Albums

Wu Fei

With an impressive list of collaborations in her still-young career, Chinese-American composer Wu Fei follows up her 2007 solo debut, A Distant Youth, with this unveiling on Tzadik. Having already caught the attention of John Zorn, Fred Frith, Carla Kihlstedt, and Ikue Mori, Fei’s resume doesn’t lack big names.

The pieces here are built around different ensembles, including some for solo piano, percussion, and guzheng, a traditional Chinese stringed instrument. Each is beautiful in its own manner, and
Fei’s expressive sounds will soon make the rest of the modern compositional world take notice.

Wu Fei: “She Huo” (excerpt)

Colorlist: Photographs (Stilll / Off!)

Crossover multi-instrumentalists Charles Rumback (Leaves) and Charles Gorczynski (Silences Sumire) lead Colorlist, an ambient assortment of electronic and jazz influences.

Incorporating synthesizers, harmonium, saxophone, marimba, guitar, and drums to create a low-key textural soundscape, the group’s recent release on Belgium’s Stilll Records, Lists, now gets the remix treatment. Guest reconstructionists include Reminder (Josh Abrams of Town & Country), Mercury Effect, 3+, Gamial Trio, Fred Lonberg-Holm, and many more.

Colorlist: “Pteridophyta” (Reminder remix)

The (International) Noise Conspiracy: The Cross of My Calling (Vagrant)

Produced by Rick Rubin, The Cross of My Calling finds The (International) Noise Conspiracy reaching further into its bag of 1960s-style jam rock than ever before. Led by former Refused frontman and political vocalist Dennis Lyxzén, the group isn’t treading any new ground, but its new album proves the band to be at its most complete and most talented.

The (International) Noise Conspiracy: “Assassination of Myself”

John Zorn: Filmworks XXII: The Last Supper (Tzadik)

Why slow down? Tireless renaissance man John Zorn issues his fourth Filmworks soundtrack of the year, this time for a sci-fi art film named The Last Supper. Tzadik’s website calls it “one of the strangest films Zorn has ever scored,” so it must be out there. Zorn accompanies the film’s futuristic imagery with pieces solely for voice and percussion.

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Posted to Music Reviews on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 by Scott Morrow.