Nico Muhly : Speaks Volumes

2007 release features seven exquisite works of chamber music for small ensembles with Electronics. This debut album by composer Nico Muhly was created with producer Valgeir Sigurdsson (Bj"rk, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy) in Reykjavik, Iceland and in New York, Muhly's hometown. Since having graduated from the Juilliard School for composition in 2004, 25 year-old Muhly has been causing significant ripples in modern music circles with a variety of projects. He has collaborated closely with artists as diverse as Antony (from Antony and the Johnsons who guests on Speaks Volumes) and Philip Glass, with whom he's had a long-standing relationship working on numerous stage works and film scores. Muhly played on Bj"rk's album Med?lla where he met Sigurdsson and the idea of working together on an album was soon discussed. He then worked with Bj"rk on the score for conceptual artist Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9 film. Speaks Volumes doesn't sound like most classical records. It is not an idealized version of live musical performance or a substitute for the authentic live experience. It is not intended to conform to the nineteenth-century experience of classical music. Speaks Volumes was approached from a different direction. Sigurdsson's recording and production doesn't sit back and let the music sweep the listener away emotionally; it leans forward in exacting scrutiny and urges the listener to pay attention. Moteer.