If I read this correctly – and who reads all of a press release anyway? – “Music From Macbeth” is an extended remix of a soundtrack composed by Gaelynn Lea for an actual Broadway production of Macbeth. Since Macbeth was originally written by an Englishman but set in God’s chosen country of Scotland, there can surely be no shortage of musical inspiration to be found within such exquisite words.
Whilst there is nothing here that might ever be classified as a singalong three minute single, there is still much worthy of consideration if your ears have developed further than a mere affinity for music that parallels action on stage or film with continuity seeming to be the key descriptive word here and Acts One to Five flowing together as a sort of mood piece that exceeds the basic requirements for accompaniment to a scene by some margin. Admittedly, my ears are attuned to aural prestidigitations of the more esoteric end of the market yet, even if you are not so enthused, it is not difficult to find yourself moved inside the music with the ever eloquent violin of the aforementioned Gaelynn Lea functioning as a sort of pied piper to lead you away from the world of now into a world where being left of centre is as right as the middle cannot be.
Atmosphere is everything with this sort of music and “Music From Macbeth” generates enough of that to make you wonder is rain does indeed fall mainly on Dunsinane and, with her, rather appealing, mix of ambient textures and more formalised musical structures, Gaelynn Lea also proves that she is indeed a voice skewed from the commercial norm.