"If you’re looking for polished presentation, skin-deep emotion, and well-mannered performances, turn around! Josiah Altschuler’s solo cello and voice pieces are anxious Americana vignettes so sharp they cut through bone and tissue to get to the heart of the music. As a bioinformatics programmer at Harvard by day, you might think his experimental-gothic take on these popular songs would sound scientific or overly academic. Instead, these “Murder Ballads and Love Songs” (smart and precise as they are) peel away the layers of a devastated world to reveal things both disturbing and beautiful beneath the scarred earth. Altschuler’s unorthodox cello technique, more like strumming and fingerpicking a guitar, propels the tunes with percussive pops, pounding, clicks, and finger slaps. His haunting voice, whisper thin and rhaspy, resonates in the darkness, ghostly and distant. Snd yet it feels heavy as a sermon from a fire-and-brimstone preacher just down from the mountaintop. This is a fantastic album of diverse cover songs that find new life and meaning when recontextualized by Josiah’s unique blend of indie-Appalachian influences, Country folk, and Delta blues."
- CD Baby, Editor's Pick Review (9/12/08)
HELLO ET VRAIMENT BRAVO POUR LA MUSIQUE ! VENEZ FAIRE UN TOUR ET ECOUTER MES PREPRODS SUR MON NOUVEAU MYSPACE. CE N'EST PAS DU BLUES, MAIS CE N'EST PEUT ETRE PAS SI ELOIGNE – MUSICALEMENT - FA
Dear Josiah, Thank you kindly for your friendship. Really amazing music you have here. We'll certainly be picking up a copy of your CD. sing with the birds~ kathryn :lux interna:
I'm gonna have to make a trip up north. I love what you do. It's cool to hear inavative takes on traditional sounds that don't lose the soul of the songs. Nice job
