nasty

Haunted Harpsichord commits fully to its premise and is all the better for it. An atonal harpsichord – an instrument that already sounds faintly sinister in the right context – picks through unsettling melodic fragments whilst cello lines drift beneath in ways that suggest someone who means no good. A xylophone adds notes that feel slightly wrong in the way that children’s music sometimes sounds when heard unexpectedly in an empty building. The use of serialism – a compositional technique that deliberately avoids conventional melodic patterns – means the music never quite resolves into anything comfortable, which keeps the listener in a state of sustained mild unease throughout. Effectively creepy, in other words.