When Words Fade
“Night, the beloved. Night, when words fade and things come alive. When the destructive analysis of day is done, and all that is truly important becomes whole and sound again."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Anderson & Roe's latest album is a stunner! When Words Fade features 12 new arrangements -- some radical, some fantastical! -- of vocal music espousing the wonders of the night. Featuring works by composers from Vivaldi and Schubert to Michael Jackson and Coldplay, Anderson & Roe guide listeners on an intensely emotional journey, across boundaries of time, place, and genre.
Buy the album on ArkivMusic, amazon.com, or iTunes.
Considerations for Listening:
When words fade, a song sheds its specific narrative—but the emotion remains with all its potency. You, the listener, are free to infuse the music with your own personal meaning. We challenge you to do so as you listen to this collection of vocal music we’ve reimagined for a wordless medium: the piano duo.
When words fade, we are left with the heart of the matter, the essential truths unmitigated by the approximations of verbal expression. Words may comprise our main mode of communication, but they often fall short in embodying our innermost emotions, thoughts, and imaginings. This is where music enters: in the spaces between, in the silence. Music captures the ineffable, and that is why it is so undeniably powerful—it gives our deepest and often subconscious feelings shape and flow, as well as a beating, singing heart.
Or, when words fade, and the sun goes down, we enter a world of darkness and romance, hallucinations and dreams. This album reflects the spectrum of life through a nocturnal lens. In the night, we all face our shadow selves, the demons that lurk in our psyche, the secret aspirations that gleam like stars, and the passions that blaze like fireworks. As you listen to this album, escape the mundane and leap into the music’s revelations.
Buy the album on ArkivMusic, amazon.com, or iTunes.
CD Track List (with links to program notes):
- Jackson/Anderson & Roe: Billie Jean
- Vivaldi/Anderson & Roe: Sento in Seno
- Anderson & Roe: Papageno! (based on arias by Mozart)
- Anderson & Roe: Carmen Fantasy (based on the opera by Bizet)
- Schubert/Anderson & Roe: Der Erlkönig
- Rachmaninoff//Anderson & Roe: Vocalise
- Anderson & Roe: Mathilde, Marieke, et Madeleine (based on songs by Jacques Brel)
- Schumann/Anderson & Roe: Mondnacht
- Villa-Lobos/Anderson & Roe: "Lo, at Midnight" from Bachianas Brasilieras No. 5
- Radiohead/Anderson & Roe: Paranoid Android
- Arne/Anderson & Roe: "The Glitt'ring Sun" from The Morning
- Coldplay/Anderson & Roe: Viva la Vida
DVD Includes:
- Der Erlkönig music video
- A Rain of Tears music video
- Billie Jean music video
- Carmen Fantasy music video
Buy the album on ArkivMusic, amazon.com, or iTunes.
top 10 reasons to buy "when words fade"
- TEN | It makes the perfect holiday gift for music listeners of all types—from the classical neophytes to the diehard aficionados.
- NINE | Engineered by Grammy Award-winning Steven Epstein and recorded on two beautiful Steinway concert grands, the sound quality will blow you away.
- EIGHT | Where else can you hear two classical pianists jam to pop songs by Michael Jackson and Coldplay? The dance party is on!
- SEVEN | The packaging features superlative photos, 12 glossy pages of utterly fascinating commentary, and two of the roundest discs we've ever seen!!!! (They make terrific frisbees ... we know, we've tried.)
- SIX | To answer the following question: How on earth will Greg & Liz translate Jacques Brel's inimitable style and picturesque lyrics to the (wordless) piano duo medium?
- FIVE | Help us get on the charts!
- FOUR | Bizet's glorious (but lengthy) opera Carmen has been lovingly fashioned into a "Cliffs Notes" version ... we like to call it our Carmen Thriller.
- THREE | We rock out to Radiohead's "Paranoid Android." Our favorite track.
- TWO | The BONUS DVD! Share our cinematic, demonic, sublime, and smoldering music videos with your friends. Music by Vivaldi, Schubert and more come to life!
- ONE | Embark on an awe-inspiring psychological journey through the depths of the night. This genre-busting, boundary-crossing album features 12 wordless arrangements of songs that speak to the irresistible magic of the night.
Reader Comments (1)
Anderson & Roe are perhaps the most dynamic and gifted performers at this excellent
artist Series in the last few years.
I highly recommend that you make the effort to attend one of their performances -
It is memorable.