Hauschka is at least one of two songwriters i’ve heard from this month who wrote music after the birth of their child; i’m beginning to believe that fatherhood has its creative rewards. Hauschka really put in the hours, though, explaining that “after the baby, I had to concentrate to find time to work, so the process was very intense.” The end result is Abandoned City, an album recorded in a burst of energy over ten days. The exception to that is the lead track from the album, and like the album cover, it speaks more about the almost insomniac intensity than the relived joy a father might be feeling after bringing life into the world. “Elizabeth Bay” is a busy interloping piano landscape, fidgety and worrisome with plenty of detail waiting in the wings to be found. The track was actually written for a reinvention of Wagner’s Flying Dutchman, but on its own, it sounds like it’s own world, if not just its own abandoned city. Listen to “Elizabeth Bay” below.
