Cold Blue

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The 'Cold Blue' compilation was originally released in 1984, showcasing new music from America's West Coast and including artists like Harold Budd, Ingram Marshall, James Tenney, and Michael Byron. Nearly 20 years after its initial release, this anthology still sounds refreshingly vibrant and vital, easily fitting in with avant-garde works conceived and performed today.

Many of the tracks have a plaintive quality to them, leaning heavily toward the ephemeral. Michael Jon Fink's 'Celesta Solo' is exceptionally fragile, its faint, sensual chimes sounding as if they are part of a Morton Feldman composition. And the reissue's bonus track, David Mahler's 'La Cuidad de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles', is a gorgeous solo piano piece that is both unrestrained and introspective.

There is a bit of clamor mixed in with this tenderness, though. The movement of Peter Garland's 'The Three Strange Angels' isn't grounded in the heavenly grandeur you might expect. A piano and drum bash out music with pointed vehemence, joined later by the hornet-like whirl of a bullroarer. Rather than floating among the clouds, the angels in Garland's composition struggle in some celestial basement, crashing across the floorboards to let others know that they still exist.

Continuing with this taxonomy of spirits, John Kuhlman channels some ancient Navajo force on 'In This Light', though it seems coupled with the constrained anger of a Sonic Youth song. An electric guitar throbs through the track, waiting for but never gaining the chance to explode, while a series of reverberating chants murmur and drone with the same eager intensity.

Many of the musicians featured on 'Cold Blue', such as Michael Jon Fink, Chas Smith, Jim Fox, and Michael Byron, also have recent full-length releases on the Cold Blue Music label, which ceased operations shortly after the initial release of 'Cold Blue' and started up again in 2000. So besides being a slice of music history, this compilation also serves as a starting point for listeners finding Cold Blue Music for the first time and as a rebirth for the label itself. For all involved, it's a solid and laudable new beginning.