The Future According to Yesterday

Redhooker (Artist), Stephen Griesgraber (Composer), none (Conductor), Stephen Griesgraber; Maxim Moston; Peter Hess; Rob CollinsThe music on the debut recording of Redhooker was written in a vacated accident-injury law office 700 feet above ground in downtown Manhattan. The music was inspired by a year spent living in a qu (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Stephen Griesgraber; Maxim Moston; Peter Hess; Rob CollinsThe music on the debut recording of Redhooker was written in a vacated accident-injury law office 700 feet above ground in downtown Manhattan. The music was inspired by a year spent living in a qu
• Conductor: none
• Composer: Stephen Griesgraber
• Audio CD (May 8, 2007)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Soft Landing Studios
• ASIN: B000QBU1YI
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #377,525 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Broody, dense, electro-acoustic music. Works well with headphones. The music on the debut recording of Redhooker was written in a vacated accident-injury law office 700 feet above ground in downtown Manhattan. The music was inspired by a year spent living in a quiet, isolated former port village called Red Hook. The stark contrast of these two environments yields a four piece program that is spacious but dark, dense yet fluid, cautious while extreme. A solo clarinet trails a lone violin creating long swaths of gossamer dissonance while a Rhodes quietly spins out its ostinato. An electric guitar enters the mix as the group embarks on a repetitive but contrapuntally rich dance. When the computer enters, it brings with it a monolithic drone - a composite of acoustic voices collected earlier, blended to reveal rich overtones that take on lives of their own. Gradually the acoustic instruments reenter, singing long lamenting lines vaguely reminiscent of 16th century choral polyphony, while the drone recedes to a role as foundation, and guides the players through the completion of their walk. 1 Sometimes She Speaks Gently 2 Animus 3 Sunday Silence 4 Twelve Times Goodbye

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magical Mystical and all you ever wanted to know..., November 1, 2008

By 

Catherine S. Todd (Oxford NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Future According to Yesterday (Audio CD)

Don't miss this incredible Brooklyn-based group when they play in NYC; excellent fusion of modern and classical showing that new young composers really know their stuff! What a difference a real love for the music and an "understanding of the music" makes for people who perform. Long way from the sixties with it's blasting rock 'n roll. God save us all. Love it. Don't miss it!

****

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About Redhooker

Thanks to Steve Smith for a great review in Time Out New York! Thanks also to John Schaefer and John Diliberto who have been playing "The Future According to Yesterday" on their show "New Sounds" on WNYC and "Echoes", syndicated on public radio stations around the country - go to www.echoes.org to find a station in your area.

Hardly a week passes in the TONY classical pages without cause to repeat a certain observation: The borders between classical and popular music have never been as willfully blurred as they are now. That's not a nod to the pallid oratorios and highfalutin recitals served up by aging rockers, but rather an acknowledgment of the groundbreaking work being done by an emerging generation of composers and performers, for whom Mogwai and Moby can signify as much as Machaut and Messiaen.

Stephen Griesgraber is no stranger to locals who have followed this burgeoning trend: His guitar provides a strand in the gossamer music of Christopher Tignor's postminimalist ensemble SlowSix. Griesgraber's quartet, Redhooker, named for the Brooklyn neighborhood in which its repertoire gestated, includes two fellow SlowSix collaborators, violinist Maxim Moston and keyboardist Rob Collins; clarinetist Peter Hess completes the group.

Griesgraber's music on The Future According to Yesterday, Redhooker's debut CD, shares some of SlowSix's more appealing qualities, most notably the chiming sound of Collins's electric piano and a sense of narcotic drift enhanced by subtle electronics. The leader's spare, tonal melodies and repeated rhythms draw upon minimalism, but his compositions develop and conclude more succinctly. Clocking in at less than 30 minutes, the disc includes four pieces that seem to melt into an extended, melancholy dreamscape. -- Steve Smith