The Brooklyn Rail

Dimensions in Music: The Art of the Cello, Extended: Charles Curtis Plays Waking States

By Alan Lockwood

Possessed of a microtonal pitch acuity with which he mirrors sine waves, and in command of an exquisite technique that earned him first soloist chair in Hamburg’s North German Radio Orchestra, cellist Charles Curtis bridges the out and in sides of classical music.

Walking When the Woods Were Wild

By Scott Marshall

Over four CDs, Jozef van Wissem attempts contemporary amalgams of Renaissance lute pieces. These well-intentioned efforts are often subverted by the quirky slide guitar of Gary Lucas, sounding far more out of place than in his glory days in Captain Beefheart’s last Magic Band.

Anthrax: Fearsome, Ridiculous, and Charming

By Sarahjane Blum

On the corner of Forty-Fourth and Broadway, below two facing marquees uneasily promoting “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Anthrax,” are visitors checking carefully to ensure they know exactly where their line begins and the other ends.

Make Me Feel Something

By Grant Moser

Seductive and moody and oh-so-beautifully textured, the songs of Calla are reflections and shadowy whispers from your hidden corners. Listening to these songs is like sitting at a dark corner table in a basement bar, or being underground with a fallen angel telling you fables, or walking the city on a quiet night, or waking up from a dream and trying to grasp at the fleeting images that just recently occupied your mind.

In Conversation

Parthenia with Phong Bui

After their usual Sunday afternoon practice, Rail Publisher Phong Bui visited the Carroll Garden studio of Rosamund Morley and Larry Lipnik, two members of Parthenia, a critically acclaimed New York-based viol consort whose ethereal, spirited and virtuoso performances of sixteenth to twenty-first century music has delighted audiences across the United States and Europe.