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raze
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oliver schroer was a canadian violinist, composer, and producer. in his 52 years he produced/performed on more than 100 albums and wrote more than 1,000 original pieces of music. he gave very unorthodox music lessons in smithers, british columbia, serving as a friend and mentor to young musicians, introducing them to the art of improvisation and encouraging them to nurture each of their individual creative voices. he wrote a song for each one of them, capturing his impressions of their personalities in sound, and recorded the pieces in-between chemotherapy treatments, with one of his students providing piano accompaniment.
in 2004, before his illness, he walked 1,000 kilometers along the ancient camino de santiago pilgrim trail with his wife and two friends. he brought along a portable recording studio and carried his violin wrapped in his sleeping bag, without its case ("like my own precious relic," he said, "carefully packed in its reliquary of socks and underwear"). he recorded solo pieces in churches along the way, some written, some improvised. sometimes he was allowed to play for an hour. sometimes thirty seconds.
"camino", the resulting album, is a series of duets for violin and gorgeous, resonant acoustic spaces. ambient recordings of sounds encountered throughout the journey are woven in and out, becoming their own kind of music. it's one of the most beautiful, transportive things i've heard in recent memory.
this is music_you_should_hear.
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