Warning! The Canadian composer of the album you're looking at uses big words like "concatenation" — once to define karma, and then again to heed a plague of locusts. He's fond of even grander clusters of instruments: Over the last few years, Pallett has contributed string arrangements (and other orchestral filigree) to records by Arcade Fire, Grizzly Bear, Pet Shop Boys, Mika and other proponents of luxe pop. Here, he combines the Czech Symphony Strings, the St. Kitts' Winds and a pack of Reykjavik-recorded fellow multi-instrumentalists to create a one-man opera, one in which the protagonist slays his author.

It cannot be denied that Pallett is fearlessly nerdy: His last solo album, 2006's He Poos Clouds, celebrated the various schools of magic known only to those who play Dungeons & Dragons. It was released under his previous moniker, Final Fantasy, a nod to the role-playing Japanese video game. But on Heartland it's clearer than ever that he's an extraordinarily gifted composer and a master of unexpected instrumental juxtapositions. One moment his orchestrations undulate and bubble like Philip Glass; a few seconds later, they soar with the sophistication and exuberance of Leonard Bernstein. Sometimes they do both:… read more »