Fennesz

Musicians love to use the iTunes "Genre" field as a chance to make a joke, so whenever a contemporary artist's album comes up as "Classical," it's natural to arch an eyebrow. But the description isn't so out of place for Austrian electronic artist Christian Fennesz. Black Sea finds Fennesz building his minimalist symphonies out of guitars and computers, spliced with glitchy blasts of static.

At times so minimalist that it threatens to recede altogether, Black Sea tests and rewards a listener's patience. "Glide," one of the album's most moving tracks, is an instructive example, starting and lingering in relative silence. An almost ominous hum begins rising along with a gathering storm of white noise–and the faintest of melodies fighting underneath until, about five minutes in, it explodes into full bloom. Grand and cinematic in vision, "Glide"–like Black Sea–could easily be passed over by restless listeners; it's more about mood than melody, and when it's taken off the speakers, it's not so much the memory of an indelible melody that lingers, but instead the response that the music provokes.

Black Sea isn't just an album for relaxed contemplation, though. The noisier buzz of tracks like "The Colour of Three" finds a crossroads between the ambient and the abrasive. The opening title track starts with a cacophonous layering of electronics before evolving into a wintery melody featuring a sparse, yearning guitar riff that cuts through the fog before being washed away into an industrial hum. Newcomers who are worried about inaccessibility will still want to start with Endless Summer, the 2001 album that introduced Fennesz to a broader audience. Longtime listeners and those accustomed to the sort of modern "classical" music that's made with laptops will find much to digest and enjoy in the Black Sea.

—Adam McKibbin
12.31.08