Deep Stacks No. 22 - Abandoned City

“Abandoned City” - Hauschka

My father and I have always been huge fans of artists who are able to gracefully bridge the past, present, and future. Hauschka, the stage name of the German born pianist-composer, Volker Bertelmann, is certainly one of those music minds, creating instrumental landscapes that pulse with energy, layered loops, heavy delays, filters, and samples. He generates his blend of acoustic-electronic performances from an often heavily prepared piano and modern almost DJ-like mindset sampling, altering, and playing over his own performance as he builds kaleidoscope like tracks that morph and twist between their polarities of woody, often percussive, phantasmal acoustic piano sounds to lush electronic shadows almost like a cloud temporarily blocking out the sun. The sugar cube dropped in between many of these immersive modern soundtracks on many of his records are the more 'classical' piano moments where he seemingly channels Chopin, Brahms, or a mute Thom Yorke into some of the most emotive, beautiful (for lack of a better word) instrumental music I've heard in many years. As much an everyday soundtrack for a scenic run or workout as could be a film score (check out OST for film 'Lion'), meditation, or video game, Hauschka's music just as easily could be seen as purely capital 'F', Fine Art fit for a contemporary chamber music hall at any of the world most prestigious performing arts centers.