Sounds like you’ve got lots of pop feedback, and lots of people will steer you to the classics like Barber’s Adagio. And modern serious stuff is mostly pretentious garbage, IMO, but there are a few exceptions, and they are sublime.
Modern serious music:
- Hearing Solar Winds, David Hykes and the New Harmonic Choir, Ocora label, number 558 607. Said to be the best classical album of 1981, Four singers each singing a chord (yes, it’s for real) in a medieval stone church. Must have because it’s meditative, original, and unique.
- Sound track for the French movie ’Police’, which just happens to be no more and no less than Gorecki’s Symphony III (of Sorrowful Songs), and the only vinyl rendition. Erato 9275, S. Woytowicz, soprano. A huge harmonious landmark piece of voice, piano, and orchestra. Just don’t look it up to see what it’s all about - you don’t want to know. Really.
- Tabula Rasa composed by Arvo Part (sometimes spelled Paert). Mainly piano and strings, give ’Fratres’ a few minutes until the piano part comes in - although you may prefer the transcription for the 12 cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic. Must have because it’s fascinating, strange, and haunting, the best of modern Baltic music. ECM Records, New Series, ECM 1275.
Good luck!
