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From The Desk Of Cardinal’s Eric Matthews: Chamber Music

After an 18-year absence, Cardinal has finally returned with Hymns (Fire), its sophomore album. To rabid fans of the bi-coastal duo who’d all but given up hope of ever hearing a sequel to their masterful self-titled 1994 debut, that freshman year must have seemed interminable. When its first longplayer appeared on an indie-rock scene buzzing with grunge and punk, it was such a breath of fresh air, some people became giddy from lack of oxygen. To those without a sense of history, it was as though Richard Davies and Eric Matthews had discovered something that had never been done before. Harpsichords and baroque trumpets on a pop album? Preposterous! We love it. No one knows better than Davies and Matthews, themselves, both men with a sense of perspective, that you only have to dig out your copy of the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour album to hear “Penny Lane,” awash in baroque trumpet. Or listen to the two LPs by the Left Banke, a mid-’60s combo that hit it big with “Walk Away Renee” and “Pretty Ballerina,” for a hit of string quartets and harpsichords. Not to say that Matthews and Davies didn’t create something perfectly wonderful, both then and now. The duo will also be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with them.

Matthews: As a youth I will admit to falling first for the big sound of the full orchestra, the German and Russian composers (esp. Mussorgsky, Korsakov, Beethoven, Brahms, Shostakovitch, etc.), and the fatted up film scores of John Williams (Star Wars) with all the heavy brooding of blasting brass, 40 string players and walls of percussion. As I grew slightly older, I discovered the power of the smaller groups: chamber music. I started with the Baroque period; with the harpsichords, recorders, oboes and various stringed instruments. The Italian composers like Vivaldi and Scarlatti charmed me. It was an old sound, the sound of Bach and before Bach. Our parents would take us to Powell’s Bookstore and there were racks of cassette tapes done off in sections of the various periods of music. Over a period of years, I worked my way through the centuries on up to the Romanticism of the French, Satie and his big little piano and back to the simple: chamber music. And I think the sound of the small groups, the string quintets and other small configurations had such an appeal to me because of what George Martin would score for song favorites like “Eleanor Rigby.”

Video after the jump.