The Santa Fe New Mexican from Santa Fe, New Mexico • Page Z026

ASA TFMPOS cd reviews DEEPCHORD PRESENTS ECHOSPACE The Coldest Season (Modern Love) When the days get shorter and the nights grow cold, bleeps and blips emerge from the bracing breeze. 'Twas ever thus, as evidenced by a long canon of electronica that goes back to 1980s-era synth classics Hyperborea by Tangerine Dream and Vangelis' soundtrack for Koreyoshi JAN VOGLER My Tunes (Sony Classical) German cellist Jan Vogler, who capably soloed in Haydn's Major cello concerto with Santa Fe Pro Musica in October 2006, has added another fine CD to his notable output this time, a collection of personal favorites since his childhood. They range from original cello works to arrangements, and from Bach, Bloch, and Bruch to Dvorak, Elgar, and Henry Mancini. Don't laugh at Kurahara's film Antarctica. More recent examples are Rhythm of Snow by Yagya, Score of an Imaginary Iceland by Ontayso, or anything by Geir Jenssen (aka Biosphere, whose frigid sonic tableaux include Cirque and Substrata).

The latest blast of arctic chill comes courtesy of Rod Modell and Steven Hitchell, who have teamed up as Echospace to release dubby, moody, minimal techno. The Coldest Season is all beats and atmosphere; there's no song structure here. Droning, gloomy, and hypnotic, the tracks are full of echoing industrial noise that sounds like a slow-motion earthquake toppling machinery in an abandoned warehouse. As with the combination. It works well in context of a greatest hits CD, because Vogler plays the pieces with luminous musicianship and earnest support from conductor Helmut Branny and the Dresdner Kapellsolisten.

The cellist's tone is as light and insinuating as a spring breeze in Elgar's Salut d'amour yet strong and tender (but with a sob in the sound) in Mancini's Moon River. He plays two Bach aria arrangements with reverent ecstasy, an emotion carried to even greater heights in Bruch's impassioned Kol Nidre. I like Vogler's enchanting Tchaikovsky playing a great deal, especially the soulful "Andante cantabile" from the first string quartet. Droning, gloomy, and most of the recordings mentioned above, this is music for gazing out of frost-laced windows while seated at a rough-hewn desk and enjoying a mug of something that steams or sipping from a thermos while navigating squalls on land or sea. Recommended for those who enioy A characteristic, rather coy solo by 19th-century cellist Carl Davidoff is tossed off with insouciance.

"Der Engel" from Wagner's Wesendonck-Lieder is the only disappointment: Vogler plays it rapturously but without much sense of the song's original words or the rubato phrasing a gifted singer would naturally bring to it. Yes, it's lovely, and it is an instrumental work in context; but it just needs to sing a bit more to reach perfection. Craig Smith Pole, Monolake, Basic Channel, and other purveyors of persistent, pulsing peculiarities. Ya weirdos. Jeff Acker hypnotic, 'The Coldest Season' is full of echoing industrial noise that sounds like a slow-motion earthquake toppling machinery in an abandoned warehouse.

EDDIE VEDDER Music for the Motion Picture 'Into the Wild' (J-Records) Judging a film soundtrack, cleaved from its visual counterpart, can be a tricky business, because a great theater experience does not necessarily AKRONFAMILY Love Is Simple (Young God Records) What is the sound of a hundred hippies riding a tilt-a-whirl? translate into a great stereo experience. Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder's first full-length solo outing, the soundtrack to Sean Penn's Into the Wild, is a case in point. Vedder aims high, exploring the same soul-searching themes of greed, asceticism, and dropping out as the movie, but the overall effect is a bit underwhelming in an artsy-fartsy kind of way. On the plus side, Vedder relies heavily on acoustic instrumentation, infusing the record with pleasing rootsy melodies not usually associated with the rocker. And Vedder has always been a phenomenal singer, boasting a finely nuanced, highly emotive baritone.

Unfortunately, he's for the most part a mediocre songwriter. Aside from the fine-but-too-short, banjo-driven "No Calling" and the mandolin piece "Rise," few of these If I had to guess, I'd say it sounds a lot like AkronFamily's Love Is Simple and it sounds pretty darn good. The album starts with a singalong that sounds straightforward enough but then zig-zags into styles that blend contemporary folkie Devendra Banhart, pop-weirdos Animal Collective, Zuma-era Crazy Horse, and college-quad drum circles. It's fun stuff, full of mostly delightful contradictions: the album sounds like the result of a jam session but also seems meticulously constructed; several songs exceed the seven-minute mark, but the CD is crammed with hooks, making it both accessible and challenging; the songs don't always stand on their own, but the album can be tough to listen to from start to finish. I'm pretty sure "I've Got Some Friends" reprises musical INTO THE WILD songs stand out.

The handful of instru-mentals, no matter how appropriate in a movie theater, fizzle in your living room. The disc's best cuts the expansive, surging "Hard Sun" and the lovely, bare-bones "Society" were written by other artists and stand miles above Vedder's own songs. Proof in the pudding that, provided the right material, Vedder can spin magic. Without it, he just spins. Michael Koster themes AkronFamily established last year on their Meek Warrior album.

While it's difficult to tell if they are being sincere or ironic with their hippie-dippie platitudes, it's refreshing that sentiments such as "love is simple" which are usually presented in the musical equivalent of a Hallmark card can still be framed in an edgy and ambitious context. Somewhere, John Lennon is smiling. Robert Benziker JUL 26 November 23 29, 2007.