Leave the station wagon in the garage, unpack the picnic basket, and slide that pith helmet back under the bed, where it belongs. Haunted America, the new release from Milwaukee's galactically acclaimed Present Music, provides the musical equivalent of an extended sojourn through an America haunted by grit but ready to shout for joy - minus the sunburn and mosquito bites. From the surprising ebullience of the title track, Jerome Kitzke's elegant post-minimalist meditation on life after 9/11, to the seductive surreality of Finnish wunderkind Kimmo Hakala's Chamber Concerto, by way of Michael Torke's gently ecstatic Song of Isaiah, Haunted America delivers a thoroughly kaleidoscopic listening adventure, courtesy of what might very well be America's most supple New Classical ensemble---and one of its most adventurous.
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