Press
iTunes (Aug.
2009)
Whirld: ASIA
prh...studios
Rating: *****
of 5
A Breath of Asian Aire
Do you remember the early scene of Disney’s Sorcerer’s
Apprentice, where the great wizard draws upward a swath of colors,
which converge into a dreamy technicolor butterfly? Contemporary
wizard Paul Hirschfield has conjured up the aural equivalent, being
the supreme color master of the sound byte he is, in his sixth inn-House
Concert disc: Whirld: Asia.
Composer Hirschfield’s striking fusion of world melody motifs
with Asian landscapes is flat out gorgeous. Each of the thirteen
pieces is a deft union of instrumental color and rhythm, suggesting
winding, long forgotten forest paths suddenly there for the contemporary
global family to explore. This is not travelogue music by any means.
As lush and accessible as the music is, it also challenges each
listener to find his place amidst the haze of modern chaos and order.
The music invites and encourages: yes, this can be done.
Hirschfield has a knack for presenting and layering instrumental
colors. No piece outstays its welcome. The element of surprise is
highly valued, no complacency or untoward repetition here. The melody,
the motifs, the characters of the music are so captivating, so unusual,
so sharply etched that hearing more becomes a necessity. The whole
journey is an exercise in opening up, but with such inviting color
and melody that the listener just becomes a happy captive, letting
go and being rewarded for doing so.
The final track (Asian Winds) is stunningly summative and life
asserting. It will leave you breathless (in the middle of the freshest
air you’ve ever breathed), surprised, and utterly satisfied.
The soul of a Stokowski is certainly part of Hirschfield’s
muse. Take this next journey, and get in touch with your pathways:
discovered and undiscovered!
- Howard R. Selekman
iTunes (Aug,
2007)
interTwined
prh...studios
Rating: ***** of 5
Music for the
21st Century
For sheer musical
ingenuity and inventiveness coupled with wide-range sonics, it’s
hard to resist the musical adventure that composer PRH [Hirschfield]
has concocted on silver disc, also available for download. With
unflagging momentum, Hirschfield’s internationally-styled mix
of the classic and the modern not only engages, but captivates the
listener. It’s really beautiful stuff. There are whiffs of
any number of classical composers spanning the centuries, but that
doesn’t matter. There’s an individual voice here manipulating
electronic and live tonalities that create surprise at every turn,
a little motion picture scoring, a little jazz and rock, a little
symphony. But what really accounts for the surprise is Hirschfield’s
feel for color. Each movement splashes the paints in Fantasia like
sequence, sometimes with great delicacy, at other times with imposing
seriousness. And suddenly, from nowhere, there is a chordal progression,
a motif, that goes right through the heart, a drop of the infinite
and the mysterious (try track 13). The piece can be startling, but
always agreeable and life-affirming. Plain and simple, Intertwined
is a musical treat.
Mention must
be made of the sonic “picture” and “feel” of
the recording. I’m not one who cares a whole lot if I can or
cannot pinpoint exactly where an instrument happens to be placed;
a general sense is enough for me. What matters to me is how tactile
the presentation of the colors and instrumentalities is. The other
value that is important for me is the air and warmth that is captured
by the engineer. I have a very hard time with dry and airless sonics.
Hirschfield is both composer and engineer here. As engineer, his
sound is lush, open, and rich with wonderful separation, and for
those who find this important, pinpoint acoustics. On this disc,
the sound itself is part of the adventure. On a wide-range, high-resolution
big system, the whole thing just opens up in Vista Vision. On my
Nano, with better than average earbuds, little of the spaciality
is lost. Though the music may communicate more intimately, there
is thankfully no loss of tingle, no loss of the composer’s
sensational tactile facility. In other words, rather deftly, Hirschfield
has managed to create a number of adventures here, each one a little
different, depending on the system through which one is listening.
You don’t want to miss this trip.
- Howard Selekman
iTunes
(Dec 3, 2007)
interTwined
prh...studios
Rating: ***** of 5
Let’s begin
with “virtual catalysts,” my favorite cut from interTwined.
Virtual catalysts exercises some sort of bizarre hold over me. I
play it repeatedly, as if I were still a teenager with a new favorite
album. This piece is something like a blend of Gershwin’s orchestral-jazz
“Rhapsody in Blue” with Lalo Schifrin’s theme from
Mission Impossible. The song is filled with counter-intuitive shifts
in mood and instrumentation, which nonetheless effortlessly work.
I can’t get virtual catalysts out of my head. Gershwin’s
Rhapsody in Blue premiered at a concert entitled “An Experiment
in Modern Music.” Too bad “experimental” later came
to stand for pretentiously odd, discordant and unappealing sounds.
Every prh song, on the other hand, is an experiment in the best
sense. Prh’s music is filled with unexpected shifts and blends,
yet alldesigned to fascinate and please, rather than shock or brag.
You might call it “orchestral sampling.” The boldest mixes
on this CD are blended with gentler tributes to several folk traditions,
like the music of Canada’s Cape Breton. There are a couple
of pure percussion pieces as well, harking back to prh’s early
work. I’ve been listening to prh for years, and with interTwined,
he’s reached a whole new level. Get it.
- SNK
CDbaby (2006)
“Musical
mosaics interweaving themes of various and often divergent genres
from classical to jazz to world [etc.] in each CD and often within
a track, yet smoothly interacting, representing a refreshing approach
to composition.”
- CD Baby
© 2008
prh
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