“Music and nature have a long and illustrious history together,” writes violinist, composer, improvisor, hiker, Richard Carr. “It’s been done a zillion times, but I can’t fight it anymore. True, I spend more time than most knocking around the woods and winding up and down the trails. Over the course of six decades, I have explored the major mountain ranges of six continents. This has been long enough to witness first-hand the changes that have been so apparent not only to the naked eye but also through the empirical research of climate scientists.”

While others trod the path of academe, “I explored jazz, open improvisation, minimalism, just intonation, spectralism, dental equipment sampling, and anything else that might be a vehicle for self-expression.”

Following in the footsteps of 2021’s Over the Ridge (Neuma 146), Landscapes and Lamentations continues the (wholly- and) semi-structured musings, this time dwelling on places within 15 miles’ radius of Carr’s home in the Hudson Valley.

The celebrated string quartet, American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), is back, occasionally augmented by pre-recorded piano and guitar, and, of course, Carr himself sitting in with the band.

Richard Carr has been some kind of musician for last forty-some-odd years. This included work with big orchestras, and small ensembles. He played classical with the Boston Philharmonic, jazz with everyone from Milt Hinton, to Bucky Pizzarelli, to Karl Berger, and Fred Frith. He has recorded dozens of albums starting way back in the golden age of vinyl. He studied composition with Donald Martino, Jonathan Kramer and many others who are curious to see what’s over the ridge.