Christina Vantzou Returns with 'No. 2' on Kranky

BY Alex HudsonPublished Jan 22, 2014

Back in 2011, we included Christina Vantzou's album No. 1 on our list of Great Albums You May Have Missed, so we're more than a little excited to learn she is ready to deliver the follow-up. The logically titled No. 2 is due out on February 24 through Kranky.

The Belgian composer worked with Minna Choi of Magik*Magik Orchestra, with recording taking place at San Francisco's Tiny Telephone studios. Additional mixing and sound textures were added by Bryanbaum Wiltzie in Brussels.

The material was performed with a 15-piece ensemble. It's all-instrumental and was conceived as a cohesive whole. A press release notes that it incorporates "dense layers of strings are augmented by angelic voices, piano, woodwinds, & various synthesizers."

Scroll past the tracklist below to hear the cut "Going Backwards to Recover What Was Left Behind." Look for Vantzou, who is also a filmmaker, to release videos for every song on the album. Interestingly, there seems to be something of a Canadian connection, since there's a track called "Vancouver Island Quartet."

No. 2:


1. Anna Mae
2. Going Backwards to Recover What was Left Behind
3. Brain Fog
4. Strange Symptoms
5. Vancouver Island Quartet
6. Sister
7. VHS
8. Arp
9. Little Darlin Seize the Sun
10. Vostok
11. The Magic of the Autodidact

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