Eban Schletter

Eban Schletter's Cosmic Christmas

Track Listing

01.  Countdown (0:40)

02.  Send Christmas Into The Universe  Featuring Crissy Guerrero & Tracy DeNisi (4:20)

03.  Christmas Time Is Here (3:45)

04.  We Three Kings (4:58)

05.  Space Baby One (0:24)

06.  Computers - Part 1 (1:45)

07.  Super Small (4:40)

08.  Space Baby Two (0:22)

09.  It Came Upon A Midnight Clear (3:45)

10.  Who Is The Man With All The Toys? (0:26)

11.  Carol Of The Bells (2:06)

12.  Computers - Part 2 (2:05)

13.  What Will Become Of Christmas? Featuring Grant Lee Phillips (5:51)

14.  Silent Night (5:07)

15.  Computers - Part 3 (3:03)

16.  Auld Lang Syne (2:12)

"What will become of Christmas?" That is the question posed by film/TV composer, Eban Schletter, on his latest concept album, Eban Schletter’s Cosmic Christmas. In this yuletide odyssey, veterans of his acclaimed Witching Hour project perform Christmas classics and original songs. A storyline worthy of The Twilight Zone tells of a drifting military satellite, which encounters a mysterious series of signals, forcing the on-board computer to question all it was created to do.

The odd combination of Theremin and vibes interpreting timeless melodies serves as the musical spine of Eban Schletter's Cosmic Christmas, but from there, a variety of styles and sounds coalesce into a greater whole.  Layers of piano drift like stardust though the Vince Guaraldi classic "Christmas Time Is Here"; pulsing rhythms jettison a heroic "We Three Kings"; and "Silent Night" rises from a swirl of music boxes and keyboard oscillations.  Joyous harmonies adorn original songs like "Send Christmas Into The Universe".  Grant-Lee Phillips turns in a stellar vocal in "What Will Become Of Christmas?"

In all, it is a sonic feast and a fun, while poetic, meditation on what Christmas means in light of the direction our world seems to be heading.