★★★★★
It might take a bit more time before consensus determines if the (relatively) recently coined term 'indie classical'--a blanket that covers a blurry crossover where young star composers (Nico Muhly, Owen Pallett) and artists from the rock milieu who have branched into classical forms (Jonny Greenwood, Sufjan Stevens) both dwell--will stick around longer than the usual labels of convenience...
- www.popmatters.com
2014-10-09
★★★★★
Classical music without pop signifiers lives in the margins of pop conversation. It's largely ignored, or at best pitied, and without a visual or cultural anchor, some modern listeners tune out when classical music comes on the speakers. What is Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries without some helicopters flying over a beach in Vietnam? What is Stravinsky's Rite of Spring without the history of the dawn of time...
- pitchfork.com
2014-10-01
★★★★★
The New York-based sextet yMusic has quickly become the go-to ensemble in the so-called "indie classical" community. They have recently been championing the music of Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry, and on Balance Problems they've assembled a collection of works from fellow shape-shifters like Nico Muhly and Sufjan Stevens...
- www.wonderingsound.com
2014-09-30
★★★★★
If you're an indie rocker in need of chamber instruments, odds are you'll end up hiring a member of yMusic. The quietly ubiquitous sextet has spent its three-year existence amassing cross-genre collaborations like so many passport stamps: you've heard them, wittingly or not, playing with Bon Iver, Björk, Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Arcade Fire, the National, Vampire Weekend-- you get the idea...
- pitchfork.com
2011-12-05
★★★★★
On yMusic's debut album, Beautiful Mechanical (2011), the ensemble both exceeds the expectations of a debut release and also falls victim to a few blunders usually encountered in a young group's journey. Firstly, the record exhibits a blend of instrumental voices that coalesce in a tightly knit, luminous synchrony that is exceedingly rare at such a stage, and in fact is difficult to achieve for even some well-seasoned companies...
- www.glidemagazine.com
2011-11-21