Mason Bates, Mothership, Boston Modern Orchestra P.There are definite moments here but otherwise I would not call this essential listening. So whether you should have this set depends on how much minimalism you require. But then there will be something more substantial that breaks out and gets your attention. Tiersen at his least interesting here has that tendency. Tiersen has gone the route that Glass sometimes falls into-that is, sometimes settles for simple ostinatos with a easily understood attractiveness.
The best of it develops or has rhythmic vitality and a mesmerizing way about it. Minimalism as it takes this sort of approach is perhaps nearing the end of its days as a serious music. The rest of us will find things to like, surely, but things also to feel indifference towards. It will appeal to folks with jangled nerves who want something soothing. The rest is patently inoffensive but perhaps also bland.Īnd so the music goes. Once you get used to the way the music is to proceed, you settle in and, to me, get maybe one in three pieces or perhaps two that have something captivating. Complex modulations or heightened mood contrasts are not the order of the day, though. When the music works it can be that and well wrought. But the rest are perhaps understandably "popular" in the sense that the average listener gets a soothing, no worries ambiance that can either be minded or more or less ignored, like what "easy listening" music was for my parents' generation, a comfy chair kind of unity of gentle affect. Some have a quasi-banality to them that borders on new age music, but then there are pieces that add a twist of melodic-harmonic inventiveness and have something distinctively good about them. And that has nothing to do with Van Veen's performances, which seem to me exactly what is called for. I have decidedly mixed feelings about it all. Short, new romantic in its emotionality, no doubt reinforcing the mood of the film. Some of it SOUNDS like movie soundtrack fare, indeed. Tiersen came to prominence with his soundtrack music for Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film "Amelie" and a bit of that is included in this program. The liners refer to this as "French nostalgic music," and at times you do hear echoes of cafe pop from years ago. They are minimalist and lyrically liquidian, with a feel that reflects an affinity with Philip Glass, but perhaps also Satie and Chopin in their flowing modes. The set presents 45 mostly very short works. By pleasing I mean it in the general sense. I base that on Jeroen Van Veen's 2-CD set Pour Amelie (Brilliant Classics 95129). Yann Tiersen (b 1970) writes pleasing music for solo piano.
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