NPRs All Things Considered Features Composer Phillip Bimstein and His...

National Public Radio's All Things Considered has aired an interview with composer Phillip Bimstein along with excerpts from his two Starkland CDs.

The show focuses on music Bimstein created in connection with Zion National Park and some colorful inhabitants living nearby. Originally broadcast on July 4th, this interview was the culmination of a week-long examination of various national parks. The entire show, along with photos, useful links, and a complete transcript, can be found at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.phpstoryId=92033252

All Things Considered airs on over 560 radio stations and reaches an audience of approximately 12 million listeners, making it one of the top-three most listened to radio programs in the United States. The show was the first public radio program inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame.

Within 24 hours after the Bimstein feature premiered on NPR, sales of his Starkland CD Garland Hirschi's Cows stampeded to #1 at Amazon's Classical Indie Music rankings.

NPR's Howard Berkes begins the interview with an exploration of Bimstein's Half Moon at Checkerboard Mesa, which features the sounds of frogs, crickets, coyotes, sandstone rocks, and the water of Zion's Virgin River. Sampled into a computer, these sounds were transformed by the composer into musical materials, accompanied by a lovely oboe melody. Bimstein explains, "I was just trying to make it like this oboist going for a walk through this canyon and encountering these frogs and coyotes and crickets and kind of collaborating with them."

Bimstein adds he hoped to reflect the rejuvenating power of a National Park hike. "Zion National Park and all those critters in Zion have spirit. And so when we go to a National Park and we see those sights and we hear those sounds and we see those animals it helps us to regain our own spirit."

Half Moon at Checkerboard Mesa has been performed at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall, and was heard again in May at a WNYC New Sounds Live concert at New York's Merkin Hall.

This piece is from Bimstein's Larkin Gifford's Harmonica CD, released by Starkland to widespread acclaim. The New York Times called the recording "an engaging introduction" to the composer's "quirky electro-acoustic compositions." The review concludes that "The irresistible charm of Mr. Bimstein's music has less to do with technology than with his uncanny knack for finding the music of everyday life."

Read the entire New York Times review at: http://www.starkland.com/reviews/ST214-NewYorkTimes.pdf

Stereophile calls Bimstein "an American original" who "has evolved into a singular musical entity". They find the Larkin Gifford's Harmonica CD "stunning and heartwarming," offering "quirky, moving, and delightful musical journeys."

More information about this CD is found at: http://www.starkland.com/st214/index.htm

Multiple-Grammy winner John Adams wrote the CD's warmly enthusiastic Introduction, stating: "Like their composer, the pieces on this album communicate a generous and good-natured spirit that is tempered with wry wit and a special sense of the western landscape and culture that he so loves."

The All Things Considered show also discusses Bimstein's piece Garland Hirschi's Cows, noting that the piece is "a kind of concerto for cow and rancher" which "was an underground, alternative music hit in the 1990s." For many years, Garland Hirschi grazed his cows next to Bimstein's Springdale home, and the composer "blends the rancher's voice, his cows' moos and musical notes derived from both."

This piece is found on a popular Starkland CD also titled Garland Hirschi's Cows, which Stereophile acclaimed "the ear-opening CD of 1997." They described Bimstein as "outstanding in his field" and "brilliantly original." Stereo Review praised the CD for its "immediacy, wit, and inventiveness," and Wired deemed the CD "quirky and thoroughly engaging."

Read more about Garland Hirschi's Cows at: http://www.starkland.com/st205/index.htm

This latest exposure for Starkland's CDs, coupled with the fine reviews that have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, brings increased attention to the label's pioneering efforts and excellent recordings over the years. The influential Sequenza21 website writes, "Props to our amigo Tom Steenland who has been producing great avant-garde recordings on his Starkland label from Boulder for many years now."

About Phillip Bimstein:

Bimstein resides in Springdale, Utah, where he served two terms as mayor, prompting Outside magazine to call him "America's only all-natural politician composer." His "alternative classical" music combines acoustic instruments with found sounds and voices to paint portraits and tell stories. Bimstein's music has been performed at Lincoln Center, Bang on a Can, and London's Royal Opera House. In addition to his studies of theory, composition, and orchestration at the Chicago Conservatory and UCLA, Bimstein led the new wave band Phil 'n' the Blanks, whose albums and videos were college radio and MTV hits.

For more, visit: www.bimstein.com

About Starkland:

The Starkland label releases compelling, engaging recordings of new, experimental, and alternative classical music. To view Starkland's complete catalog, visit: www.starkland.com/catalog/index.htm

Previous recordings have received over 150 favorable reviews, including those in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Billboard, Sound & Vision, and the Wire. All of the music on the label's Immersion DVD was commissioned by Starkland exclusively for high-resolution surround sound. It is now recognized as the first such recording in history, and Immersion was often the #1 bestselling DVD-Audio at Amazon.com. Read more about Immersion at: www.starkland.com/st2010/index.htm

The label's releases have been featured on such national radio programs as NPR's All Things Considered and Weekend Edition. Other recordings present Charles Amirkhanian, Tod Dockstader, Paul Dresher, Aaron Jay Kernis, Phil Kline, Guy Klucevsek, Kronos Quartet, Merzbow, Meredith Monk, Pauline Oliveros, Turtle Island String Quartet, John Zorn, more.

For more, visit: www.starkland.com

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