Beyond the Sky

Most followers of the New York new music scene will be familiar with Rob Schwimmer as Mark Stewart’s partner of crime in Polygraph Lounge, which is somewhere in between Spike Jones and Homer & Jethro for the totalist generation. But, just like their comedic antecedents, these guys can really play, which is what makes their shtick so effective. We all knew this about Stewart, an anchor to the Bang on a Can All-Stars for years, but Schwimmer has always lurked on the periphery doing session work all over the stylistic map on piano and theremin. But now there’s finally an opportunity to hear Schwimmer front and center on a disc devoted mostly to his own solo piano compositions which range from the subdued to the mani–and a few things that are both, like his cover of “Stormy Weather” which dishes out some convincing musical onomatopoeia.

—FJO