Garland Hirschi's Cows

I was a music major, so maybe that's why I am able to appreciate this truly remarkable set of compositions. As the CD progresses, the pieces get stranger and stranger. "The Door" is particularly entertaining. Area residents were interviewed and the composer spliced their voices into surprisingly snappy musical works. The very last piece becomes so bizarre it's almost unworldly. What a mind that composer has! My favorite CD!!!

I'm a high school music teacher and I love using "Garland Hirschi's Cows" and "The Door" to expand my students' definition of music. These two compositions especially are entertaining enough to keep the class's attention while introducing some important concepts. I am invariably asked to play it again over the next several days as anyone who was absent returns and hears about it from enthusiastic friends. I've also had to buy it three times so far because, unlike the rest of my classical and jazz CD's, this one tends to walk away. . . You'll enjoy this. If it whets your appetite for something a bit more "serious," try Steve Reich's "Different Trains" with the Kronos Quartet. You may prefer it, but you'll still never forget the cows.

Graduate of the Chicago Conservatory of Music, Phillip Bimstein formed the New Wave group, Phil 'n' the Blanks. Fascinated by language, Bimstein incorporates text into his music. In the title track, a Utah farmer talks about his cows, the history of butchery and why cows Moo. "The Louie Louie Variations" deconstructs the classic rock song into a contemplative fantasy with the help of the Modern Mandolin Quartet. Backed by the Turtle Island String Quartet, "Dark Winds Rising" records three generations of the Jake family. They speak of the sanctity of their ancestrial land vs. the toxic waste incinerator built nearby. "Vox=Dominum" is an atmospheric work that cuts up vocal love chants of the ancient Sufi poet Rumi. Another inventive recording from the Starkland label.