Foreign Landscapes

VINYL FORMAT. The follow-up to 2008's breakthrough Ferndorf, Hauschka's Foreign Landscapes represents another tremendous shift for FatCat's engaging composer/pianist: nine of its twelve tracks feature a twelve piece string and wind ensemble from San Francisco's Magik*Magik Orchestra alongside Volker Bertelmann's own prepared piano. While Ferndorf explored the composer's relationship with his pastoral hometown, Foreign Landscapes is an album of travel, locational snapshots, and shift; always evocative, Hauschka's compositions here sing with the urgency and movement of exploration, the rushing exhilaration of new cities, new environments. Now dark and intimate, now playful, now driving - the ensemble's fleshed-out instrumentation enables Hauschka to bring his exuberant versatility to a new and vital level. With Foreign Landscapes, Hauschka stretches for - and reaches - stunning new realms.