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ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

Essential New Music: High Plains’ “Cinderland”

At its most potent, classical music should stir, move or inspire something in audiences. Emotions ought to be skewed, turned upside down or inside out. Done right, what’s on display is the potential of a genre centuries old. If High Plains—the duo of Wisconsin cellist Mark Bridges and British Columbia-based multi-instrumentalist Scott Morgan—doesn’t transcend the sainted greats quite yet, debut LP Cinderland certainly aspires to the same orchestral heights. “Song For A Last Night” capitalizes on the unease of natural sound samples, using instrumental elements as complementary framing devices: a solemn keyboard tone repeating to one side, distant strings singing to themselves at the other. “Hypoxia” groans and quivers; “The Dusk Pines” evinces a thick, regal sorrow. The standout title composition contrasts pensive piano lines and industrious, sawing cellos. On “A White Truck,” Bridges and Morgan cast grace aside, plunging into the trammeling drones reminiscent of Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

—Raymond Cummings