The Colorado, a documentary film directed by Murat Eyuboglu about the geography, ecology, history and future of the Colorado River, received its premiere screening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art last week. The liner notes to the soundtrack describe it as, among other things, "a cautionary tale about the environment," and indeed it is difficult to imagine that a movie about the environment in the year 2016 could be anything but pessimistic.

But the music … ! The Colorado's soundtrack positively radiates optimism. Just released on composer Paola Prestini's VIA Records, in association with New Amsterdam Records, the score incorporates music by a constellation of talents. In addition to Prestini, composers include process-music icon John Luther Adams, prog-pop provocateur William Brittelle, percussionist (and Wilco drummer) Glenn Kotche and opera singer turned indie rocker turned composer Shara Nova (formerly Shara Worden, of My Brightest Diamond); performers include Kotche, the infinitely versatile vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth and cellist Jeffrey Zeigler (formerly Kronos Quartet).

The result is an album so energized by the possibilities of contemporary music-making that it practically glows in the dark. If there is a twinge of nostalgia to the soundworld these musicians have constructed together, it is a nostalgia for that moment in the 1980s when absolutely anything seemed possible — when Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Philip Glass and Linda Ronstadt could all collaborate on a record together, and somehow it all cohered. 

The Colorado, too, hangs together, in part due to the tone of wide-eyed — but always clear-eyed — wonder that winds through the album like the titular river, and in part due to the remarkable palette of sounds that the team of performers is able to create between the extraordinary cello playing, the virtuoso singing and a rhythm section that combines Kotche's primal drumming with the occasional gleam of some defiantly retro electronics. The album occasionally veers into silliness, but that seems almost inevitable on an record where seemingly anything could happen next. 

The Colorado
VIA Records | Released May 27

This audio is no longer available.