great moments in music #3

Where I End & You Begin by Jefre Cantu-Ledesma

i remember sitting in music history class in college the first time i heard the ‘pastorale’ movement from beethoven’s 6th symphony.  at the time, it seemed to be the first time that any composer had gotten off the compositional soap box and written something that expressed raw emotion.  he used the orchestra to paint a picture of a storm moving in, and the moment when the thunder first strikes is a stark change, light and dancing moods are suddenly interrupted by long notes of doom.  this was the rock music of the 19th century. 

when i first heard jefre cantu-ledesma’s ‘where i end and you begin’, beethoven’s pastorale was the first thing that came to mind.  anyone who has caught on the noise/ambient/slow music craze lately knows that most of the action lies in the details, minute changes taking place within a bed of sound, every now and then a detail emerges from your subconscious, it slowly fades away or is transformed, it’s great for going on a walk or mediation.  there’s hardly ever something bold to grab onto besides the piece in it’s entirety.  a lot of JC-L’s music falls into that category, but ‘where i end and you begin’, offers one sudden and powerful change.  until the change occurs (look at the waveform, its pretty obvious where it occurs), i found myself pleasantly enjoying the atmosphere, thinking about the way the distortion suffocates the noise, listening to the angelic melodies underneath the noise. and then the music takes a quick breath, and it explodes. great moments in music.