Library Catalog Music Series:
Music for Memory by Roberto Carlos Lange
LABEL: Asthmatic Kitty • RELEASE: December 8, 2009


Roberto Carlos Lange's Music for Memory is sort of what it would sound like if you were thrown out into one of the most culturally and artistically explosive neighborhoods on a Friday night, hitting every club, bar and street-busker along your way. Though, somehow, it may be even a little better because you won't have the hangover to deal with the next day.  And if this is music for memory, then you'll want to keep every one you can.

While the disc begins with a strong Latin flavor, it quickly spreads and goes into several different directions before the journey finally ends, maintaining a dub rawness that holds everything together. The album feels like an art gallery, stopping here and there to give the listener very disparate visions during its hour and seventeen minutes of running time. Music for Memory demands a focused attention span if you choose to come along for the ride.

“Probably the most attractive feature of the music as a whole is its range and dynamic. Grooves and beats give way to soft melodies and textures which in turn rise back up to into experimental activity.”

Three records come to mind when listening to Lange's work here, and all for different reasons. The Necropolis album, produced by DJ Spooky, in regards to aesthetic and the eclectic cataloging approach to sound; Swans' Soundtracks for the Blind, for its careful orchestration and blending of found material, happenings, and samples; and finally, Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, in the way that each musical piece is designed to convey a different visual to the listener like an exhibition display. What Music for Memory has over the first two records mentioned, however, is a concise flow without getting mired too deeply in sound design exclusively.

Probably the most attractive feature of the music as a whole is its range and dynamic. Grooves and beats give way to soft melodies and textures which in turn rise back up to into experimental activity. Lange has made a piece of remarkable art that never loses sight of the visceral side of music and sound.


REVIEWED BY NEIL LEVENS
NEIL'S FAVORITE TRACKS: "Oranj con You" • "Love 4" • "Mines"