''Composed'' is an album by
Sacramento
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, image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
born musician, composer and arranger
Jherek Bischoff
Jherek Brandon Bischoff (born September 11, 1979) is an American composer, arranger, producer, and multi-instrumental performer. He has released over a dozen studio albums as a solo artist and band member and has credits as a musician, arranger, p ...
. It was released by
The Leaf Label
The Leaf Label is a British independent record label based in Yorkshire, England. Initially an electronic music label, releasing mainly instrumental music, the company's approach now features artists spanning jazz and post-punk.
History
The Le ...
and
Brassland. The album features nine orchestral pieces with a different vocalist on eight of the nine tracks.
Background
In a departure from the recording techniques normally associated with orchestral music, Bischoff relied heavily on the process of
overdubbing in the creation of ''Composed''. Spending a summer travelling by bicycle he recorded "each individual musician of the ‘orchestra’ in their own living rooms", sometimes leading to "one violinist playing one part twenty times...until it was the size of a huge orchestra".
After recording the instrumental parts, Bischoff then visited each of the guest vocalists to record them, apart from
Caetano Veloso
Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso (; born 7 August 1942) is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicalismo, which encomp ...
and
David Byrne, who recorded their own parts at home.
The other guest vocalists on the album are
Greg Saunier
Greg Saunier (born 18 May 1969) is a musician, producer, and composer best known as the drummer and founding member of Deerhoof.
''Rolling Stone'' included Saunier alongside Brian Chippendale (of Lightning Bolt) and Zach Hill (of Hella, lat ...
(
Deerhoof
Deerhoof are an American musical group formed in San Francisco in 1994. They currently consist of founding drummer Greg Saunier, bassist and singer Satomi Matsuzaki, and guitarists John Dieterich and Ed Rodriguez. Beginning as an improvised no ...
), Mirah Zeitlyn, Paris Hurley,
Nels Cline
Nels Courtney Cline (born January 4, 1956) is an American guitarist and composer. He has been the guitarist for the band Wilco since 2004.
In the 1980s he played jazz, often in collaboration with his twin brother Alex, a percussionist. He has w ...
,
Craig Wedren
Craig Benjamin Wedren (born August 15, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and composer, who began his career fronting post-hardcore band Shudder to Think. Following the disbandment of Shudder to Think, Wedren pursued a career as ...
,
Carla Bozulich
Carla Ragin Bozulich (born December 24, 1965) is an American musician based in Los Angeles, known as the lead singer, lyricist and founder of The Geraldine Fibbers and Evangelista as well as a founding member of Ethyl Meatplow and Scarnella. The ...
,
Zac Pennington
Parenthetical Girls was an experimental pop band formed in Everett, Washington in 2002, and disbanded in 2013.
History
Begun primarily as a recording project between Zac Pennington and Jeremy Cooper, the band, originally known as Swastika Girls ...
(
Parenthetical Girls
Parenthetical Girls was an experimental pop band formed in Everett, Washington in 2002, and disbanded in 2013.
History
Begun primarily as a recording project between Zac Pennington and Jeremy Cooper, the band, originally known as Swastika Girls, ...
), Soko and Dawn McCarthy (
Faun Fables).
Critical reception
In a 4/5 star review, ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' describes ''Composed'' album as "a collection of lavishly orchestrated pop songs that throb with expressionistic drama, by turns romantic, playful and faintly sinister" adding, "occasionally Composed sounds indulgent, when Bischoff succumbs to syrupy, symphonic cliche; even so, its ambition and singularity are intoxicating".
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
called Bischoff "a hugely talented composer, with sky-high ambitions" but stated that the "multiple guest vocalists...keep things lively while also preventing a through-line from developing...lending the album the feel of a busy, semi-staged opera".
Spectrum Culture counters this, saying the album fits together "seamlessly" due to Bischoff's "selflessness".
''Composed'' is described as "a piece of immaculately arranged orchestral pop, one whose level of baroque whimsy varies by track and by guest after noteworthy guest" by ''Alarm''.
Track listing
All music by Jherek Bischoff. All lyrics by guest vocalists.
''Scores: Composed Instrumentals''
''Composed'' was followed by ''Scores: Composed Instrumentals'', an instrumental version of the album that does not feature any of the guest vocalists from the original record. When purchasing the record, the customer is also offered the
score transcripts of the music to download.
References
External links
"Eyes" official video"Young & Lovely" official video
2012 albums
Jherek Bischoff albums
The Leaf Label albums
{{2010s-classical-album-stub