ClassXX is a new label for contemporary and expanding music to touch, explore and stretch the classical genre and they kick off with a fantastic and varied set of modern classical ambient/electronica by artists such as Bruno Sanfilippo, Mathias Grassow, Chris Edwards, Tomas Weiss and many others. This is a frustratingly schizophrenic compilation. Out of Line is a perfectly appropriate title, because to these ears, there is almost a clock-like rhythm swinging from the pompous and over-wrought to the restrained and affecting.
The label´s stated intent is to explore the possibilities of so-called "neo-classical" music, brooking "no rules, no boundaries, no restrictions". But the anticipated "crossover" sounds more like a collision.
For some artists seriously over-egg the pudding, while others are more thrifty with their ingredients. I have no idea what feelings Chris Edwards harbours for Bucharest, but his opener dedicated to the city is so saccharine that he must have fallen goofily head over heels in love there. The palate is however immediately cleansed by ”Lost”, a tart, toy-like chamber piece by Eric Schwartz that sounds a bit like a music box trying to remember the tune ”Greensleeves”. Michael Travlos´ ”Indigo” is a angular, modernist collage of whispers, plucked strings, and turgid cello. Rüdiger Gleisburg´s string quartet ”Unfulfilled Longing” is so effective in rousing real emotion that it indeed leaves you unfulfilled by its mere two hundred and five seconds.
And so we continue to be cast between moods and styles: fractured spoken word, tongue-clucking and erratic piano by Thamnos (a duo featuring compiler Tomas Weiss) is followed directly by the über-symphonics of Nostalgia (another Weiss side project), which gives way to Maik Sever´s ”Division”. A lone piano being caressed by a slight breeze of strings, it is a perfect example of how one can compose modern Romantic music without resorting to melodrama.
However, the absolute revelation of the album is the cello duet between Donja Djember and Insa Schirmer (who together made a significant contribution to Hauschka´s excellent album ”Ferndorf”). It is spectacularly performed.
And after continued see-sawing, the album anomaly: the stately, weightless and electronic ”Silence Calls” by Weiss and Mathias Grassow, at nearly thirteen minutes also by far the longest track.
"El Ceibo" by Bruno Sanfilippo makes for a lovely epilogue and final impression.
