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Jan 11, 2011Foreign Landscapes is a sonic mind-map that finds him dancing across geographical locations by way of his prepared piano (which, in layman's terms, refers to when objects are placed inside the guts of the instrument) and input from San Francisco's 12-piece string and wind Magik*Magik Orchestra.
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MojoDec 23, 2010His modified piano is used sparingly throughout, making its most telling contribution on Mount hood, a smouldering invocation of the misty Oregon peak--but the complex, emotional ensemble arrangement is what impresses most. [Jan 2011, p.105]
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Dec 21, 2010In others' hands, this could be maudlin or self-indulgent, but Hauschka's attention to detail is his strongest characteristic.
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Oct 26, 2010Compared to Ferndorf, and its staggering highpoint Freibad, it's far more introspective and thoughtful, and requires far more effort to become fully absorbed within. Which, surely, is no bad thing, but you occasionally long for a little whimsy back.
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Oct 25, 2010With a musical voice that is always travelling down a linear path, Foreign Landscapes is a spellbinding new journey into the wave of sonic explorations.
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Oct 25, 2010Hauschka has shown much promise in the past, but Foreign Landscapes buries its own experimental leanings under layers of charm and cliche: childish sentiments, cute sounds, and easy references.
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The lack of challenge and the absence at so many points of any thrust, melodic or otherwise, doesn't do justice to the ability of the creator, and that's a terrible shame considering the quality of the highlights.
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This is clearly and audibly the work of a musician, composer and performer keen to embrace evolution and the possibilities which that opens up - not only within individual tracks or across a release, but also in terms of his overall body of work.
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Foreign Landscapes enters a deadly boring lull before its second half and never recovers. The result has the energy of a cup of tea slowly going tepid in the Sunday afternoon sun.
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Treatments like this ferret out the striking undertones of quotidian places, making clear the shape of their influence on Bertelmann, while still leaving room for some measure of the listener's own.