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After overdosing on Steve Reich last week, perhaps I am a little over-receptive right now to anything which incorporates any element of his sonic aesthetics.  The title track of Ryan Teague’s Coins and Crosses (the fully developed follow up to his Six Preludes collection) took me to that special place, with its nagging string patterns knitted to barely audible vocals.  With harpist-to-the-stars (well, Charlotte Church at least) Rhodri Davies above, and drone below, I was also reminded of Alice Coltrane’s solo Impulse! Recordings, and with that devastating one-two to my breadbasket I was floored.

Usually whenever Coins and Crosses threatens to make a run into slick Craig Armstrong territory it thankfully finds itself constrained by an electronic barbed wire fence, and a choir of heavenly voices commanding expeditious return.  The influence of the great Ennio Morricone is unmistakeable, from the chiming music boxes of “Nephesch” to the soaring vocal line of “Tableau I” which brought to my mind the scene near the start of Once Upon A Time In The West where the camera pulls up and high above the train station to reveal the town’s bustle. 

This cinematic quality is wed Part-like to a seemingly sacred bent, and if I had a soul I reckon I would have found it enriched by the soaring spirituality of the album’s emotional centrepieces “Fantasia for String Orchestra” and “Accidia”.  This dizzying orchestration lifts Coins and Crosses up and high above other electronic/classical crossover pieces, and into a field of its own.
You can listen to more (and buy the whole damn thing) at Boomkat here