Hauschka - AlexanderplatzHauschka's new record, "Foreign Landscapes," starts with "Alexanderplatz," and it's a good intro to what comes later, because this song will wean you off the prepared piano sound that Haushka had worked with on his previous records. "Foreign Landscapes" lives via strings and woodwinds (though the piano's still there, don't worry). "Alexanderplatz" starts with what sounds like a violin attuned to the most tragic register, which is then joined by an escort of sweet clarinets, et al. from the woodwind family. It's different, of course, from the percussive, music-box oscillations of "Ferndorf" and "Snowflakes and Carwrecks," but that makes sense, given the apparent themes of the album: travel, change, new experiences. The whole thing feels to me like a pristine collection of experiential postcards, like Bertelmann, after visiting these places, set out to craft a (personal) musical correlate. The scope of the record is ambitious, but it's a throughly satisfying listen, partly because the songs are so evocative--it's like sitting down and getting lost in an old Baedeker's.[BUY Foreign Landscapes]