To start off with here are some very ambitious records and compositions.
"Song Cycle" was Van Dyke Parks' debut and was an unbelievably expensive release for the late 60s due to its OTT orchestration and extensive multi-tracking. It flopped at the time, getting great reviews but very few sales.
As its title suggests the album works extremely well as a whole. On top of that, Parks manages to obsessively reference Americana while still having a strong signature style.
The guy's still going too, recently doing massive arrangements for people like Joanna Newsom and errrrr, The Thrills!
"Song Cycle" by Van Dyke Parks
Okay, everyone knows West Side Story. Even if you don't, you do. Seriously, some of the songs are so part of our "cultural fabric" it's like they're embedded into us from birth. "Dah-dah dah-dah dah-dah-dah dah dah dah dah MAMBO!", "I like to be in A-MEH-RIH-KA!", "I feel pretty, oh so pretty" etc...
I actually got into the whole thing on CD before seeing the film version, let alone a stage version and that made it seem like some sort of concept album.
Just like Parks, Leonard Bernstein is great at using an orchestra to play around with traditional music, and Sondheim's lyrics are pretty cool too; very good at conveying the characters. There are lots of good phrases too and I think I'm starting to annoy my friends by using terms such as "turn off the juice, boy!" in the middle of arguments.
Anyway this is the 1957 Original Broadway Cast Recording, so it's one of the best versions.
"West Side Story (1957 Original Broadway Cast Recording)" music by Leonard Bernstein
Usually the production side of classical records consists of simply making everything sound as pristine and balanced as possible to keep the clarity of the original composition. However, this recently released compilation of compositions by Villa-Lobos uses recordings from the 40s and 50s, and while I'm sure they were trying to capture everything as well as possible, the technology deficiency actually gives the tracks a particular sound that feels "produced", maybe because of all the lo-fi production and sampled records that have flourished in the last few years.
While the CD is called "Nonetto" and does indeed feature two written by Villa-Lobos in 1924, I prefer the two "Quators" for flute, harp, celesta, alto saxophone and women's voices, (written in 1921) which surprised me by having similar moments to the next record I'm going to show and share.
Here's an EP released by Dirty Projectors in 2004 called "Slaves' Graves". Every Dirty Projectors release seems to be a different affair, and for this one Dave Longstreth got together a small chamber orchestra called "The Orchestral Society for the Preservation of the Orchestra".
While tracks 4-6 are one continuous "suite" of songs, the whole EP does a good job of sounding connected, with lots of recurring themes and a sustained atmosphere. Actually, in my opinion the first track ruins it a bit. It's alright but doesn't fit in as well as all the other tracks do and I tend to skip it. Maybe he wanted a first track that wasn't immediately identifiable as the orchestral romp which inevitably follows, and the surprises and anomalies that pop up throughout the EP are actually quite refreshing.
"Slaves' Graves" by Dirty Projectors
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