The Underground of Happiness

I think the trick with chamber pop is to introduce enough acid elements to balance the sweetness, like lemon juice in a tart. There’s plenty of swooning on Composed (the bending string arrangements alone would break your heart at several different times), but it’s offset by some gothic lyricism and an intriguing minor-key undertow to make an intriguing, moving whole. I should fess up, I’m a sucker for chamber pop. We can agree that Van Dyke Parks was the chief pioneer in this area – the man is one of my heroes – and the whiff of VDP floats around this album like a warm embrace, in its showtune interludes, beautifully subtle keyshifts and full use of every orchestral voice. Actually, “chamber” is a moot point – you could say orchestral – but I’d stick with the word on the basis of the winning personal and intimate atmosphere all through. The guest vocal turns will attract most of the headlines – David Byrne, Caetano Veloso, Dawn McCarthy, Mirah Zeitlyn, Zac Pennington, SoKo ,...

There are several reasons to love Jherek Bischoff's new album, Composed . Firstly, it's on The Leaf Label , who are on a particularly hot streak this year, following two stunning releases already from Matthew Bourne and AU . Secondly, it features guest contributions from David Byrne, Caetano Veloso, Nels Cline, Carla Bozulich, Zac Pennington and Soko , among others, all of which are sparkling and vibrant. But thirdly, and most importantly for me, it occupies the musical area known as chamber pop . You know we love a bit of chamber pop around here. This is a swooping, fluttering, brilliantly orchestrated album of tunes which recalls Van Dyke Parks at his best. I'm not going to say any more for now because I'm still digesting its multi-faceted gorgeousness, but there'll be loads more on the radio show from this in the near future.