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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Max Richter- 24 Postcards in Full Colour LP Review (8/10), 6 Jul 2008
'24 Postcards in Full Colour' is the latest and most conceptually experimental release by Edinburgh-based pianist/composer Max Richter. Following on from the radiant and haunting electronica steeped neo-classical compositions of his previous three albums, '24 Postcards...' is a release that breaks down this much vaunted electro-acoustic formula into a varied collection of evocative miniatures, each offering a glimpse into potentially much larger pieces.
'24 Postcards....' is an attempt to explore the ringtone as a vehicle for musical performance and as such, the album contains 24 tracks ranging from 60 seconds to just under 3 minutes. Richter's intention is to premiere the work in various gallery spaces where pre-registered audience members receive SMS messages which results in the playing-back of one or more of the tracks. Indeed, this is an ambitious and cleverly thought-through affair that should be witnessed and must be applauded, but is it any good musically? Well, yes! Richter carves out simple yet evocative snippets of deliciously suggestive classical compositions which arc and gleam with a majestic quality. Similar, both in style and length to a score for a classy film like American Beauty, Richter utilises an orchestra of 9 and a limited palette of instrumentation that consists of string quintet; solo piano; 16 track 2 inch tape; transistors; found shortwave radio; vinyl clicks and acoustic guitars. From this, a clean and melodic sound is born, one that fully amplifies the resonant quality of the instrumental tones but complements it with a brooding and occasionally jilted industrial ambience.
Throughout, delicious liquid piano melodies bob hypnotically like distant waves and elongated strings echo with melancholy forlornness to create rich and harmonious textures that transport you to landscapes unknown yet never feared. The variation in '24 Postcards' has to be praised. The mournful strings making up `This Picture of Us' bob and sway with rich harmony and vivid texture, moving the listener closer to a parallel universe where dreams reign supreme. Further on, `A Sudden Manhattan of the Mind' comes across like a requiem to a cargo-ship lost at sea, the imaginary camera panning around in the murky, sub-aqua terrain to catch a glimpse of a rusting hull. Proceedings take a twist with `In Louiseville At 7', which echoes the works of Ninja Tune's electro-folk pioneer, Fog, thanks to its presentation of a cut-up background of vocals and shifting frequencies that grace a plaintive yet upbeat passage of meandering melody.
Sure the cut up nature of the album will put some off, and sure, the same tracks welded into a lengthy composition would have been more appetizing but somehow, the whole thing works. This is most probably down to the fact that compositions borne out of the same mold recur through-out the album creating a sense of déjà-vu as well as allowing the listener to chart some kind of linear progression. (KS)
For fans of: Alva Noto & Ryuchi Sakamoto
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Max Richter - 24 Postcards in Full Colour, 29 Aug 2008
A postcard tries to capture the essence of a place to send to someone who has not been there, both through picture and message. Max Richter's musical equivalents are equally distilled, and like postcards, they are short (the whole album lasts just over half an hour), and they can be restless and imaginative or quirky and poignant. Richter states that he took inspiration from ringtones, those brief, intrusive, personal into private sounds of mobile phones. Only Richter's pieces aren't invasive or irritating, instead the postcards seem not to have been sent from real places, but some sort of dream world. Not a Lynchian nightmarish world, which is uncannily disturbing, but a childlike, imaginative world, where sumptuous and evocative imagery exists to intrigue and bewilder.
Images emerge for that brief moment like the way a postcard evokes a certain memory, but is always slightly different on each listen. `A Sudden Manhattan of the Mind' has an underlying beat, which is slightly disquieting, but contains the thrill, the movement, the energy of urban life and the pulse of the city.
Richter was taught by the renowned composer, Luciano Berio and the influence is perhaps more apparent here than on any of Richter's previous albums. Listening to Berio's solo piano works, there is that same sense of tension and unpredictability that makes everything remarkably fragile and fleeting. Though Berio's pieces are far more manic and dissonant, whereas Richter has a love of melody and the whole album is soaked with a quiet beauty.
His work has always been full of sadness (`On the Nature of Daylight' from The Blue Notebooks is one of the most beautiful melancholic pieces I've heard) and this is no exception. Most of the pieces here are played on either piano or violin with particularly sombre melodies. The effect can be spellbinding as it captures that fleeting moment, that moment of beauty, which every now and again creeps up on you and you lose sense of what's going on around you as everything becomes one. `In Louisville 7' combines spoken word, found sounds and underlying gentle strings to accompany the piano playing and evoke a kind of `wish you were here' sentimentality and feeling of longing - trying to say share with me this beauty, this timeless moment.
Elsewhere on the album, Richter makes thorough use of ambient (`The Road is a Grey Tape'), minimalism (`Berlin By Overnight', which has very definite Philip Glass elements to it) and drone (`Kierling/Doubt') to craft his sound pieces. There is a similar formula throughout, as strong melodies often lie on top of fragmented, fractured field recordings and other electronic glitches as though these were akin to the picture and the melody was akin to the message on the back of the postcard. And like a good postcard, Richter's pieces really leave the listener wanting to know more. They are tasters, glimpses into another world and treasured memories.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bruntsfield Links, 7 Oct 2009
"24 Postcards In Full Colour" is an interesting concept. Essentially it's 24 concise minimalist compositions, many of which, like Brian Eno's track "Another Green World" deserve a longer running time, but are made elusive/ intriguing by their brevity. The 'postcard' concept also reminds the listener that the tracks are discrete: missives in sound from different times and places and tinged by different moods.
"24 Postcards" is compelling and original stuff, reminds me (quite a lot actually) of New Exclusive Olympic Heights, but not as 'darnce' and without PST's oblique humour.
All in all, pretty good. 4.5/5
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