Peter Broderick - Music For Confluence

‘Music For Confluence’ is Peter Broderick’s ninth studio album. Well known for touring with the likes of Efterklang, as well as headline jaunts of his own, Broderick is quickly becoming a big name in the experimental classical music world, and all of this at the tender age of twenty four. Residing in Europe in recent years, the multi-instrumentalist who originally hails from Oregon relocated to Berlin to create this record, moving into a flat above a piano shop that the owner would only rent to a musician, full of pianos.

The album was written as a soundtrack for the documentary ‘Confluence’, a film about five residents based in and around the Idaho area who went missing between 1979-1982 with only three bodies ever being recovered and an arrest never made. In tackling such a subject Broderick has made himself stand out from his fellow musicians, and shown his personal and compositional growth. It also gives him the chance to use his small orchestra to explore the grief and fear within this ghost story and he does this successfully, capturing the mystery and suspense.

A wholly instrumental piece - minus the finale ‘Old Time’, which has recently been released as a 7” single - the tracks are made up of experimental piano playing, scratching strings and sparing guitar melodies all coming together to create a beautiful yet haunting musical soundscape with many textures, perfectly fitting with the album’s subject. It’s a step away from Broderick’s usual compositional style, building each track up piece by piece and steering clear of the conventional classical score by including electric and acoustic guitar throughout.

The biggest compliment you can give this record is that it stands alone as a wonderful piece of music without the film it has been made for; you can hear the story in the songs. Broderick has created not only a wonderfully haunting soundtrack but he has also created an album of the same merit.