Composer David Chesky has captured the sound of urban settings and New York in an orchestrated sampled work with astonishing effectiveness. The sound quality is very clean and seems entirely acoustic (except for the electric guitar played by Bryan Baker); there's wonderful use of percussion and drums--be prepared to reduce your subwoofer level by at least 3 dB to avoid overwhelming bass. For fans of multi-channel, including myself, the recording decodes beautifully in DTS Neo:6, Dolby Pro LogicII or Logic7, and there's a fine spatial element. I especially liked "New York Variations" with its opening nod to Gershwin's Porgy&Bess. I hear other influences from Leonard Bernstein to Stravinsky. This is challenging music, hardly background fare but be patient and go with it. Full disclosure: I dislike the distorted sound of heavy amplified guitar; I hear only the distortion; even in my druggy youth, I hated Hendrix and heavy metal, but fans of amped guitar will like the integration of guitar and orchestra. -- Alan Lofft <br />
