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If your world seems too cynical and lacking in magic, then please listen to Strauchwerk (51:04) by Christina Ruf. Its six controlled explorations of interiority invite us up to a mysterious, high spirited orbit - a realm where music and mood are examined with authenticity and care. Honoring each musical moment as an unrecoverable miracle Ruf realizes her work while in the act of playing it. Amidst such quiet gifts we become lost in layers of cello, voice, and electronics. Vivid and alive, with the vibrancy of warm, unforced performances, Strauchwerk induces an undeniable emotionality. This method of spontaneous composition produces music with a transcendent spirit capable of transforming our experience of the everyday into something more profound. Where a moonlit dream becomes draped in velvet darkness, heartening highs lead the listener onward in an orchestral sweep of Spacemusic solemnity. As a sense of fragility rises around us, tonalities gradually shift between consonance, dissonance, and stasis. Ruf, in complete command of scale and tone, endeavors ever deeper into the sonic wilds. An Ambient Spacemusic album, with a calm, adagio heart, Strauchwerk steadily fills the world with lithe, bowed notes, which arc upward to converge in harmony, then steady down in melodic solo runs. Expression is important, but must be attended by craft and talent. From certitude to searching, then wonderment, in approach of the mystical, Ruf plays with impulse and instinct - as a reflection of her musician mind.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 5 November 2026 |
