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photo of mark dancigers by murat eyuboglu 

on september 11th, television landscape will be featured on the opening night of montclair st.'s widely acclaimed peak performances series.  the evening, presented by new amsterdam, is dubbed here there be dragons - a nod to term ancient mapmakers used to designate uncharted territories. the night will be a first for new amsterdam, as television landscape will be interwoven with performances with labelmates NOW ensemble and victoire. for more info about the event, visit the peak performances site here.

the show will include the world premiere of a brand new track entitled cheyenne autumn/spiritual robot. it's a multi-section jam with extensive guitar and sax solos, so please forgive the stiffness of the preview midi mock-up posted below:

listen to midi of cheyenne autumn/spiritual robot

i consider television landscape to be an "la" record (as opposed to an "nyc" record), so it was particularly exciting for me to be interviewed, along with my bff/newam co-director sarah kirkland snider, by the la times on the subject classical crossover. the resulting article/interview came out on thursday, and includes some kind words about television landscape, including this nugget of awesomeness:

"[Television Landscape] evokes an earthquake-weather mood along a painterly musical landscape of searing rock, shaded by tonal passages of strings and French horns, flutes and, in one emotional spot, a children's choir. You might wonder if Jane's Addiction had discovered the soul of Debussy."

you can read the full article here.

another live track from the television landscape record release event at le poisson rouge, this time from the first set: the debut of future shock featuring the ACME. this is movement two from future shock II (for string quartet). sound quality: ok, performance quality: more than ok. special thanks to arthur dorrington for recording.

Future Shock II Mov't 2 (Live @ LPR)

nice eMusic Spotlight interview with jayson greene up online now. here's the opening gambit:

"What happens when a bunch of classical nerds get together and try to build an AOR-Rock Masterpiece? It sounds like the setup to a rather obscure joke, and the scenario might sound deeply unpromising. But this is exactly what composer William Brittelle set out to do. His new record, Television Landscape, out on New Amsterdam Records, is the result of an overwhelmingly cerebral attempt to make visceral, anthemic power rock music as Brittelle knows and loves it from his youth. Brittelle, a dropout from the Graduate Center program in New York for Composition, couldn't bring himself to do this in the more intuitive way other bands might. His Epic Rock Album, perhaps unlike most others, began with a scaled, computer model with every single guitar lick, drum fill, and interlude completely notated. 

This might seem like trying to build a particle accelerator in order to grill a hamburger, but the shocking thing about Television Landscape is that it worked. Television Landscape is all the things one expects from an epic art-rock album: expansive, anthemic, all-encompassing, shot through with raw emotion. The warm, analog production feels bathed in cathode rays, and songs veer fluidly and seemingly unselfconsciously from AM-radio power-ballads to sustained passages of string writing that recall French composers like Faure and Debussy. And back again. "The idea was basically that I should just do everything that I think is awesome, all at the same time, all on one record, instead of compartmentalizing things," Brittelle laughs. Recently, he sat down with eMusic's Jayson Greene along with Lawson White, the record's engineer; Marc Danzigers, the guitarist on the record and a member of the NOW Ensemble; and several other players on the record to discuss learning to embrace pop culture, trying not be weirder than Kid A, and finding your secret music."

Click here for the whole thing.

 

special thanks to all who helped make last tuesday's television landscape record release event a truly magical evening. for those who weren't able to make it out, here's a live mp3 of my new arrangement of the color of rain featuring virginia warnken playing the roll of children's choir.  recording by arthur dorrington. thanks to stephen taylor for the awesome live pics.

The Color of Rain (LIVE @ LPR 8.3.10)

  

 
 

 
i was fortunate to be the subject of an incredibly thoughtful and generous feature in this sunday's new york times arts and leisure section.  click here to read the whole thing.  or, better yet, get the real thing at the newsstand. it's been a long and arduous road back to singing - though the closer the show gets, the more nervous i become. i'm happy to announce that the wonderfully talented virginia warnken will be assisting me on vocals duties for this tuesday's television landscape record release show. (see above for more info). for any new readers interested in streaming or purchasing the new album, you can do at the newamsterdamrecords.com album page  here. while there, make sure to take a listen to corey, matt, missy (victoire), and sarah's amazing new albums as well. special thanks to judd for allowing me to co-opt his vintage synth collection for the above pic. 

 
today is the day (well in three hours).  my new album television landscape is officially released as 7/27/10.  in celebration, i'm taking the day off and going to wave hill to look at the palisades. in the meantime, here's a nice four star review just posted in time out new york: 

"One of 2009’s most astute bits of music criticism issued from a highly unlikely source: Michael McDonald. Remarking on his surprise cameo with Grizzly Bear, the yacht-rock legend observed, “When I was with the Doobies, we all [tried] to make things as complex and interconnected as possible. The punk movement swung towards being as primitive as possible, but now it’s back to where these guys are good musicians. I never thought that would come back around, but it has.” Listening to Television Landscape, a fascinating new full-length from classically trained local art-pop composer William Brittelle, one can only think, Has it ever!

The cohesive 50-minute album plays like a glorious reclamation of lush sounds that crusty critics have vilified for years. Fusion-inspired guitar shredding, passionate sax solos, retro synths and a wholly sincere sense of pathos unite in a kind of avant-soft-rock opus. Impressively, Television Landscape doesn’t sound the least bit kitschy, even when the glammed-out Brittelle is crooning an ode to Sheena Easton.

There’s a whiff of avant-classical pretension on the lengthy title cut, but overall, Brittelle gracefully channels his background. Tracks such as the enveloping, orchestral “Pegasus in Alcatraz” may be a world away from lo-fi, but they’re no more taxing than, say, Radiohead. Like the finest AM gold, Television Landscape soothes even as it dazzles."

george grella has posted an incredibly thoughtful and thought provoking piece on television landscape over on his big city blog. in it he debunks the "guilty pleasure" myth and weighs in on the whole classical vs. pop thing. a great read (though i recognize i may be biased).