LAB Mixtapes: Episode 6

This week I'm shifting gears a little. Philip Glass, popularly mocked in programs like the Simpsons and South Park, is the American grand daddy of a minimalist orchestral sound. Sometimes it seems like he is the sole patent holder on experimental, complex and modern classical music but he is really a descendent of a long line of artists who appear to have heard beauty in mathematics and found popularity through film scores. Lesser known to North Americans is Michael Nyman who has provided evocative music for half a dozen Peter Greenaway films. What reminded me of Nyman and Glass were the string arrangements of Owen Pallett aka Final Fantasy (2006 winner of the Polaris Music Prize). Though their approaches and compositions differ, the stirring strings and keyboards feel like cousins. As challenging as this music may seem to some, you really should hang in there for the whole thing. It's good for you. Suddenly I feel like Clyde Gilmour of Gilmour's Albums. I can almost smell the Sunday roast coming out of the oven*.

Episode 6
Runs 12:54 mins

Links below open in the iTunes Music Store
Track 1. Koyaanisqatsi: Resource - Philip Glass
Track 2. Fish beach (Drowning By Numbers) - Michael Nyman
Track 3. He Poos Clouds - Final Fantasy

*Coincidentally, Owen Pallett was for a time, the music director of Vinyl Café, CBC's anodyne Sunday afternoon program which now fills the spot long held by Clyde Gilmour — consider all dots connected.