PUBLIC MARKS with tags "Arthur Russell" & label

Orange Mountain Music is a new record company created to serve the fans, aficionados and academics studying the music of Philip Glass. The idea for this label developed out of a project undertaken by Kurt Munkacsi, (producer of most of PG's recordings and head of Euphorbia productions) and Don Christensen to archive all the master recordings that Philip Glass has made. Over the last 30 some years Philip has produced hundreds of hours of recordings in the process of creating operas, film scores, musical theatre pieces and records. Glass has also recorded many performances of his solo, operatic, orchestral and small ensemble work. In the process of archiving all of these master recordings we have discovered a wealth of beautiful and unusual recordings and some very inspired performances which we plan to bring to the public. We also plan to bring recordings by other artists that have collaborated with or have been associated with Philip Glass.

Yet another posthumous Arthur Russell release from Audika, this two-disc set collects rare and unreleased orchestral material by the late NYC artist. Because the material presented here is, at least ostensibly, the most "avant-garde" in form and content yet released from the Russell archives, I expected the music to be difficult, abstract and academic. However, nothing could be further from the truth, as Russell again utilizes avant-garde techniques only as a method of approaching popular music obliquely, creating music that is as ingratiating as it is unique.