Mothertongue [Digipak] (CD - 2008)

Personnel: Nico Muhly (celesta, keyboards, percussion, programming); Sam Amidon (vocals, guitar, banjo); Helgi Hrafn Jónsson, Helgi Hrafn Jonsson (vocals, trombone); Abigail Fischer (mezzo soprano); Monika Abendroth (harp); Una Sveinbjarnardottir , Andres Kleina, Zbigniew Dubik (violin); Nadia Sirota, Pórarinn Mar Baldursson, Nadia Sirota (viola); Matthias Nardeau (oboe); Arni Heimir Ingólfsson (harpsichord); Valgeir Sigurdsson (electric bass, programming); Ben Frost (bass programming).

Audio Mixer: Valgeir Sigurdsson.

Recording information: Greenhouse Studios, Reykjavik, Iceland; Looking Glass Studios, New York, NY.

Photographer: Jason Frank Rothenberg.

Twentysomething composer Nico Muhly emerged as the firebrand of contemporary classical music in the late 2000s. Blurring the boundaries between New Music and avant-pop, he's worked with everyone from Philip Glass to Bjork, and his third album, MOTHERTONGUE, shows that he's absorbed the aesthetics of both camps. With echoes of Robert Ashley's textual manipulations, Muhly takes cliched concepts like "singing the phone book" and wrings arresting, original music from them. minimize