Steve Peters is a New Mexico-based composer who has drawn inspiration from "world music" (gamelan ensembles, for example) as well as from contemporary trends in experimental music. Perhaps its infinitely overlapping drones, like the overhead flight of unfamiliar airplanes, are meant as an antidote to prettified "New Age" music. A Temperament for Angels wears an uncomforting aspect. Throughout its 28-minute length, this music catches the ear with its juxtaposition of extremes, particularly low versus high, and rough versus smooth, yet its overall texture is metallic. Its composer, Michael Jon Fink, is a Cold Blue Music regular his works appear on several earlier discs. This doesn't last long however, and Los Tigres de Marte wends its way to an end with the clarinet singing a rapturous solo over a warm backdrop of strings and electronics, in which synthesized harp and brass sounds play a prominent role.Ī Temperament for Angels is the richest and most orchestral of these works, although it requires only a handful of performers, thanks to sampling and multi-tracking technologies. And then – surprise! – the tempo picks up, and one finds oneself in the middle of a Martian Bacchanale. In time, Marty Walker's clarinet emerges from the softly swirling mass of sound. The "Lever du jour" from Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé might have been Lentz's model. After pressing the "Play" button, one is immediately immersed in a beautiful landscape – perhaps it's spring, perhaps it's the dawn – although it seems likely that the landscape is on Mars, not on Earth. The solely acoustic textures of Fox's work give way to the electronic accents of Daniel Lentz's Los Tigres de Marte.
Long held notes in the strings and brass support the piano part, creating an atmosphere that is both ethereal and oppressive. This is an uninterruptedly slow and quiet work, dominated by shifting and repeated patterns of a few notes from the piano – imagine a music box on its last legs and you'll get some idea of what this work sounds like. Jim Fox founded Cold Blue Music, and it is appropriate that The City the Wind Swept Away is the first of these four offerings.
According to Cold Blue Music's press release, each disc is "a mini-concert that doesn't need additional music to be a full and satisfying listening experience." (Hmmph, plenty of people would say that about Albinoni's famous Adagio as well!) Needless to say, Cold Blue is offering these discs at a reduced price. Last week, buyout group TPG became the latest to join the party, and filed to go public, following the UK’s Bridgepoint earlier this year.Cold Blue Music almost could have released these four short CDs as a single disc, but keeping these works separated makes a statement that each one has a distinct identity, and deserves to be heard in a kind of isolation, if you will. Their average revenue margins have increased by 2 per cent a year, according to Wyman. Meanwhile, in alternatives land, the biggest listed US private capital companies have soared in value, as investors seek to benefit from the hefty fees they rake in from the boom in unlisted assets. “This will create a reckoning for asset managers who have developed bloat in their businesses, become overly reliant on embedded beta driving inflows despite mediocre alpha, or who have been highly dependent on cheap leverage to prop up dealmaking volumes and fund returns.” Julia Hobart, a partner at Oliver Wyman, says: This decline could accelerate as conditions that drove markets to hit record highs are poised to reverse: notably bond yields rose this year, fiscal stimulus is being retracted and central banks are reining in asset purchases.
Consultant Oliver Wyman estimates that between 20 the average revenue margins of traditional asset managers decreased by 5 per cent a year. US-listed asset managers outperformed the wider market this year, but have lagged behind on a longer time horizon, reflecting the wider pressure on their business models.