Raphael Weinroth-Browne: Empyrean
Anamnesis Arts

A classical dimension has always been part of Raphael Weinroth-Browne's music, be it in the formal rigour of the compositional writing or the finesse of the Canadian cellist's playing. It's even more pronounced on his latest release, however, given that Empyrean is an album-length treatment of material created in 2024 for the James Wilton Dance company's BACH Reimagined project. After touring his commissioned cello score with James and Sarah Wilton, Weinroth-Browne decided to shape it into what's now the nine-part suite Empyrean. He's not far wrong in pitching it as "a dialogue with Bach across the centuries.”

Don't get the wrong idea: the album isn't some mid-career pivot into classical, full stop; instead, it's another of his tremendous fusions of electronically enhanced experimentalism, metal, post-rock, and, yes, classical, all such elements seamlessly converging to form the Ottawa-based cellist's trademark sound. While echoes of Bach emerge, they do so as part of an indissoluble mix that encompasses Middle Eastern melodies, Baroque counterpoint, and thunderous metal gestures. In another's hands, such a move might prove clumsy, grotesque even; Weinroth-Browne, by comparison, makes it seem natural and inevitable.

If Bach might not seem like the first name that comes to mind when thinking of Weinroth-Browne, the cellist is as dedicated to creating music of lasting value and transcendent character. With that in mind, it doesn't surprise that he would title his third solo album Empyrean, given its associations with the eternal and the sublime. Such a lofty goal finds its aural realization in music of incredible dynamism, generated entirely by the cellist using acoustic cello (a 2012 model built by Raymond Schryer), amplifiers, and effects pedals and captured magnificently by Darren McGill at Toronto's Union Sound Company. Weinroth-Browne might be the only player, but in using gear to build his instrument into multi-tiered complexes the music exudes the hydraulic power of a large ensemble.

“Speed of Light” pulls us in immediately with aggressively bowed patterns and a punishing metallic groove, Weinroth-Browne sawing furiously across the pulse like a man possessed. Drums are programmed on the release but are no less live-sounding and hard-hitting for being so, the explosive snare and bass drum hits on this opening part testifying to that. The project's Bach origins are clearly present in the graceful “Remnant” interlude that follows and that segues fluidly into the deeply solemn “Evocation,” its own Bach influence evident in the lilting pattern that acts as a foundation for eloquent statements layered on top. The cathedral of sound generated by Weinroth-Browne is remarkably vivid, though it's hardly the only time the music registers so powerfully, as the subsequent “Murmuration” shows with its own epic bowed statements and passionate outpourings of emotion.

Unspooling like some vampiric take on industrial techno, “Integration” wails ferociously with a grinding groove the engine powering the machine. Diametrically contrasting to it is the Bach-indebted “Dissolution,” which hauntingly overlays a minimal bass pulse with a tremulous cello choir before splintering into a ghoulish mass. Entering its final third, the album advances from the meditative mysticism and towering throb of “Sanctum” and “Reflection,” respectively, to the haunting lamentation “Empyrean.” As the set concludes, it becomes increasingly apparent that the cellist hasn't thrown tracks randomly together but instead ordered them thoughtfully so that the nine parts shift between contrasting moods and styles before resolving with the majestic title track.

October 2026