Learning Music’s new monthly album, LMM 2.9 – Horizontal Household Ballads, is out now.  Here’s what John Wood had to say about it (via the LM blog):

Horizontal – As opposed to the linearly immediate and obvious vertical, these pieces are long, stretched out, changing gradually over time. (this is the longest LM album yet, seventy-some minutes). They took a lot of commitment and patience to make, employing great efforts to avoid dualistic (masculine-feminine/verse-chorus/loud-soft) dramatic techniques. They may also take some patience to listen to, (though perhaps they are better NOT listened to, but rather absorbed subconsciously).

Household – Subjects tackled in these songs include mostly elements of various modern families; stories of relationships that are ingrained over long periods of time.

Ballads – This is a very old term, at one time describing a form of epic storytelling, later referring to folk songs that traveled around europe (with wandering minstrels) and eventually to the Americas. It is a word also associated with modern love songs. Many of the electronic keyboard tones on this album sound like they could have come from a pop ballad of maybe fifteen to twenty-five years ago; sounds that could be considered dated and even cheesy (correct me if you don’t think so). However, I have, to some degree, here attempted to rescue these sounds from obsolescence, with hope that the cultural associations of sounds are but transient, that all instruments may someday be accepted into the melting pot, and judged not by their geographical or historical or social heritage, but by the pure tones which they produce.

Download the single “When We Go Out” on Soundcloud.
Download the album by subscribing to Learning Music Monthly.
Download a free Learning Music compilation at www.grilled.ch/eese.

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