When it comes to Contemporary-classical music a lot can come to mind. For example one of my personal choices would be Dustin O’Halloran. With a Eric Satie like style his pieces are an exquisite form of art. The way the notes are articulated make the spirit wander on a long and internal journey each time one tries to listen to him.
For example, “A Great Divide”, starts relatively slow and then all of the composer’s creativity rushes in as if there was nothing else of greater importance. It’s like a deep sea adventure on a stormy day. The top of it is all gloomy and wavy whereas the bottom of it is as quiet as it can get. I can go on for hours on end, but if I stroked your strings even the tiniest bit then I would recommend listening to it.
After hearing it some might say that at some point it gets repetitive and non original. But that’s exactly why Max is an esteemed composer. His ability to use the same sound with minor alternations give you the vibe of a never-ending journey into whatever makes you feel deeply.
If I were to add another composer that would be Ólafur Arnalds. Almost all of his pieces are an intense outburst of creativity. An example would be “Broken”. This piece would take quite a while to describe. It starts off slow as if it was making its way through a tight hole. Then surprisingly, it gets farther and farther until all you can feel is a mix of emotions. Its like a roller coaster of feelings. You can feel sad, happy, overwhelmed and underwhelmed at the same time. It just grabs your whole being and keeps it fixated until its done.
Rare are the pieces that can really make you feel such powerful emotions without even awakening them in the first place. The last composition I felt that way about goes way back to the early 20th century. It is the Carmina Burana, one of my all-time favorites.
Another piece worth mentioning is “Undan Hulu”. It is not appealing to any emotion in particular, because of the simple fact that it can be associated with whatever emotion the listener desires. It’s quite calm, like a winter breeze blowing through your chest on a snowy day. You can feel it there but it’s not really present due to the cold of the day. But it feels warm in one way. That’s the feeling this piece transmits to me.
As it turns out, I have talked about more than one composer which might seem a little odd when it comes to vinyl record reviews. But their style is similar and yet so contradictory that I couldn’t let any of them out. I hope you enjoyed reading this and I most certainly hope you will listen to some of the pieces I listed.