Nico Muhly preview

Nico Muhly
Lakeshore Theater, Chicago
Thursday, August 28, 2008

I once interviewed a rock guitarist who claimed he could find musical inspiration in any mundane, common, everyday sound. Nico Muhly agrees.

The term “everything but the kitchen sink” will never be better used than to describe Muhly’s Mothertongue (Brassland). On “Mothertongue: Pt. 2 Shower,” Muhly layers the voice of Abigail Fischer, who sings all the addresses she’s ever lived at, over the sound of a friend showering. When Muhly’s buddy is properly scrubbed it’s time for “Mothertongue: Pt. 3 Hress” and frying eggs and buttered toast, while Fischer keeps on rattling off those house numbers.

The album, broken into three parts – “Mothertongue,” “Wonders,” and “The Only Tune” – is often a jarring, jittery, disoriented listen prone to cause panic attics in anyone suffering from anxiety – probably why the Vermont-born Muhly has been chosen to contribute to projects by such electric performers as Björk, Antony of Antony And The Johnsons, Teitur, and Rufus Wainwright.

There are a few moments of serenity, though, most notably “The Only Tune: Pt. 3 The Only Tune,” a gentle acoustic composition guided by folk singer Sam Amidon and augmented by a whistling Icelandic wind and . . . raw whale flesh slopping around in a bowl.

Whale flesh: Proof that just because something can be musical inspiration, doesn’t mean it should be.

Muhly will be joined on this tour by Thomas Bartlett and Sam Amidon.

— Trevor Fisher

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly