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Product Description
Product Description
Pioneering neo classical / electronica band Digitonal were founded by Andy Dobson, clarinetist, soundtrack composer, DJ and keyboard guru and his partner, celebrated violinist Samy Bishai. Drawing comparisons to Orbital, Philip Glass and Steve Reich, their tenth year sees the release of a newly mastered and reworked retrospective album, Be Still My Bleeping Heart. Their 2008 album Save Your Light For Darker Days is fast becoming a seminal electronica album...
Review
The BBC review of Max Richter's latest long-play work, infra, made a point of highlighting how its maker craftily combines elements from the classical world with motifs more commonly associated with rock-arena artists. Steve Reich and Arvo Pä rt, Sigur Rós and Eluvium: unlikely stylistic bedfellows, perhaps, but musicians who echo through the work of the German-born, UK-based composer.
Andy Dobson, the skittering-of-beats half of London duo Digitonal, is Richter askew–where one marries indie traits with elegant themes drawn from the classical sphere, the other scatters chattering electronica atop the work of violinist Samy Bishai, aka the accomplished-of-bow half. Be Still My Bleeping Heart–and be still my sides at that horrible pun–is a collection covering material from the pair's recordings to date. Come and Play opens their debut album of 2002, 23 Things Fall Apart, and all four tracks from their 2004 EP The Centre Cannot Hold–Cantus V, Amberkreiss, Snowflake Vectors and Maris Stella–are included.
It's not a complete retrospective, though. Nothing from 2008's Save Your Light for Darker Days LP is featured, making this more a package for recently acquired admirers than complete newcomers, those who picked up the last album and now want to hear their limited-release early material. But absolute beginners need not start with the group's latest fare before working their way backwards–there's enough here to comprise an equally appealing entry point into Digitonal's salubrious sonic horizons.
"Neo classical ambient electronica"–a mouthful of a description used on the information accompanying promo copies of this 11-track set, but an entirely accurate one. Laptop percussion and organic strings combine to craft spacious arrangements to soundtrack waking hours when all the listener wants to do is close their eyes and drift away from the day. Dobson and Bishai are not in the business of challenging their audience, not here at least–everything is extremely accessible, and incredibly pretty. To the choosiest of ears some movements may sound rather cliché d, and certainly there are moments where great beauty is partially compromised by predictability; but many will be lulled into a state of serenity by compositions designed primarily to calm, despite occasionally boisterous beat-work.
Richter is an artist who takes his constituents and moulds them into compositions that can bemuse as well as beguile; Dobson and Bishai, though, have only beatitude on their minds, and Be Still... confirms they had clear sight of that goal on their very earliest recordings.
--Mike DiverFind more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
By P. F. May
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Heard the first track from this used as background music on a short film seen on the web and was taken by it so bought the album.
It reminded me of Michael Nyman's orchestral works, with driving rhythm underlying short repetitive themes.
Much similarity throughout but the strongest and (for me) most appealing track is the first `Come and Play' which is much too short at just five and three quarter minutes. It comes to an end when I want it to bring togther and develop its themes and power on.
The album is so Nymanesque at his most melodic, with a background of electronic instruments under soaring violin and clarinet.
If you like Nyman, then this is for you, give this a try.
It reminded me of Michael Nyman's orchestral works, with driving rhythm underlying short repetitive themes.
Much similarity throughout but the strongest and (for me) most appealing track is the first `Come and Play' which is much too short at just five and three quarter minutes. It comes to an end when I want it to bring togther and develop its themes and power on.
The album is so Nymanesque at his most melodic, with a background of electronic instruments under soaring violin and clarinet.
If you like Nyman, then this is for you, give this a try.
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