musicAddicted

10. Max Richter - Infra
9. Pjusk - Sval
8. Food - Quiet Inlet
7. Peter Broderick - Music For Contemporary Dance
6. Olan Mill - Pine

(Listen to the albums & read my thoughts on them below;
Don’t forget to check ranks 16-11 & top 5-1. Also, there’s a chart of top pop albums of 2010 along with the best pop singles. Enjoy.)

10. Max Richter - Infra

Richter’s typical signature of dark, minimal classical music layered and complemented by electronics that sound both emotive and human, got even stronger on Infra. Half of his fifth album was composed for a ballet created by choreographer Wayne McGregor and the rest is Richter’s improvisation and delving into the detail of similarly coloured emotions with intention to smoothly bridge the soundtrack music with new pieces. The final result is a flowing emotional river where the drops are strings, piano and various filtrations and manipulations with them, while the stream leads it towards soothing, night dreamscape. Infra is the music for feeling pure pleasure and bliss.

9. Pjusk - Sval

What firstly sounds flat and icily unsatisfiable becomes after several listenings deep, structured and boiling in its ambition to cover every detail of freezing north. What firstly sounds synthetic and artificial turns later into slow and palpable reality. Pjusk are said to be intensively inspired by cold Norwegian nature they are living in and its occasional darkness and cold. On Sval they patiently paint frosty, electronic pictures to reach the calm balance between deep breathing and being frozen to death. And it’s an ultimately imaginative equilibrium.

8. Food - Quiet Inlet

Losing the inimitable sound of Arve Henriksen’s trumpet and Mats Eilertsen’s bass resulted in wider perspective remaining duo of Ballamy & Strønen got and selection of guest player they chose. Hosting trumpet player Nils Petter Molvær and Christian Fennesz, master of guitar and electronics showed as a logical step in broadening Food’s multispectral sound. Quiet Inlet fascinatingly flows from dialogue to battle and back between trumpet and saxophone, both backed by imaginative and varying percussion with rather quiet electronic textures. Food’s untraditional approach to modern jazz is refreshing and stunning in the freedom it’s conducted with.

7. Peter Broderick - Music For Contemporary Dance

Poetry of piano and strings living in tight harmony seems to be one of the right musical accompaniment for contemporary ballet. Or it may rather be the undeniable talent of Broderick for transforming movement and visual perceptions into such impeccable form, not disturbing with pretentiousness, but still not boring with mediocrity. Music For Contemporary Dance is sort of compilation of two different plays and shows Broderick in his dramatic position that later turns to minimalist. His sense for elegance and emotiveness is peculiar and promising gift that should be admired and followed.

6. Olan Mill - Pine

That half an hour you spend listening to Pine feels like ages spent sitting, breathing and growing old in some airy, endless cathedral where no roof is - just a vast space with mysteriously calm and touchable echoes. Those mini-compositions built from fragmented piano, violin, guitar and pipe organ evoke freedom and calm happiness that evolves from every single tone reverberated thousand times till it dies and reincarnates in subsequent song. Pine is inconspicuous beauty.