Description
Executive Producer: Jim Mulally
The Power of the Keyboard
Yarlung board member Jim Mulally loves and supports mostly classical music. But when he hears something extraordinary in any genre his eyes light up and he grins from ear to ear. When The Power of the Keyboard first came out on CD and Jim heard Nathan at the piano and then Astral Mixtape in their otherworldly magnificence, Jim told me that audiophiles needed to hear this music. Jim generously underwrote this vinyl pressing and serves as our album’s executive producer.
Nathan Ben-Yehuda pursues a fulltime solo concert career as a classical pianist but also plays with Astral Mixtape, an innovative crossover quartet writing new works and reimagining classics from Monteverdi to Rimsky-Korsakov, and playing with ideas and thematic material from Sigur Ros to Radiohead and Four Tet. We end this album with two tracks by Astral Mixtape. The second side offers Goddess Gardens, including intoxicating “mixtape” snippets from Scheherazade and Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending, as well as more recent fare. Seven Hellos closes the album on side two, an original composition by the four members of the quartet. Astral Mixtape is clearly close to Nathan’s heart:
“I am part of this wonderful band of fellow classical musicians who are seeking to reimagine the conventional roles of our instruments, and applying non-classical approaches to arrangement and composition in our works. Astral Mixtape is the collaborative project most personal to me.”
Before we get to Astral Mixtape, however, Nathan’s solo piano repertoire makes a powerful statement. Not only can Nathan handle the delicate Haydn beautifully, but also kindly agreed to play Peter Sculthorpe’s Nocturnal for us.
Repertoire included on this vinyl pressing:
Side 1:
- Sonata in G Major, Hob. XVI:40 (Joseph Haydn)
- Nocturnal (Peter Sculthorpe)
Side 2:
- Goddess Gardens (Astral Mixtape)
- Seven Hellos (Astral Mixtape)
Enjoy!
—Bob Attiyeh, producer
The sonics in the recordings of solo piano pieces are outstanding. Nathan Ben-Yehuda is a compelling young pianist. The recording quality is also top-drawer, just as I’ve come to expect from Bob Attiyeh’s recordings.
Peter Burwasser –
Nathan Ben-Yehuda is a young Juilliard trained pianist with an elegant and introspective manner that is immediately apparent in the opening music on this record, Haydn’s Piano Sonata in G. The two-movement work contrasts a dreamy, if somewhat quirky Allegretto with an ingenious madcap Presto, and Ben-Yehuda deftly underlines the dramatic shift. This 18th-century music segues neatly into a Nocturnal by contemporary Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe, which gently plumbs the lower half of the keyboard, evoking the dark nights of the outback. Side two of this meticulously produced LP is a sampling of Ben-Yehuda’s quartet Astral Mixtape, which also includes a pair of violinists and a cellist, as well as copious computer effects. Ben-Yehuda plays both piano and synthesizer. Like many classical musicians of their generation, this foursome grew up surrounded by popular music influences, and their work is meant to find a synthesis of that cultural diversity. Thus, strains of Rimsky-Korsakov and Vaughan WIlliams bleed into jazz and prog-rock sounds. It works surprisingly well, thanks in no small way to the technical skills of the musicians, but mainly for the taut construction and unpretentious melodic content of the music itself.
–Peter Burwasser, The Absolute Sound, April 2024, Music 4.5/5, Sonics 5/5
Steve Guerrero, The Vinyl Record Mission –
My TOP Vinyl Record of 2024
Executive Producer Jim Mulally. Mastering Engineers Bob Attiyeh And Steve Hoffman. Vinyl Master Bernie Grundman. WOW! It doesn’t get much better than this.
Join me for several minutes of sonic splendor as I share with you this amazing album The Power Of The Keyboard by Nathan Ben-Yehuda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppIsJ63lQ1g
Click on the link below to purchase this fantastic album on vinyl directly from Yarlung Records, one of the best audiophile record labels in the world!
–Steve
https://elusivedisc.com/nathan-ben-yehuda-astral-mixtape-the-power-of-the-keyboard-180g-45rpm-lp/
Steve Guerrero, The Vinyl Record Mission –
P.S. My accolades, great respect and gratitude go out to everyone who was involved in the production of this fine Yarlung Records title. I’m looking forward to discovering more amazing music and artists from your outstanding record label. .