2008 highlights

It's that time of year again, where we enumerate the year's highlights. Here's my top 20, in chronological order of acquisition, so there is no guarantee that they were issued this year. The Calefax Reed Quintet's version of Bach's Art of Fugue was released in 2000, but it has quickly become my favorite rendition of that work, well worth tracking down. I posted about a couple of these albums during the course of the year, but I didn't get to review as many CDs here as I would have liked. I have also made no attempt to delineate by genre. My reissue of the year is unquestionably the Bernard Parmegiani box set.

• Katatonia, The Great Cold Distance (Peaceville)
• Gavin Bryars & Philip Jeck, The Sinking of the Titanic (Touch)
• Huntsville, For the Middle Class (Rune Grammophon)
• Earth, The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull (Southern Lord)
• Mark Wastell, Amoungst English Men (Absinthe)
• Werner Durand, Remnants from Paradise (Absurd)
• Brendan Murray, Commonwealth (23five)
• The Necks, Mosquito/See Through (ReR)
• Erik Enocksson, Farval Falkenberg (Kning)
• Morton Feldman, The Viola in my Life (ECM)
• Frank Bretschneider, Rhythm (Raster-Noton)
• Mathieu Ruhlmann & Celer, Mesoscaphe (Spekk)
• Darshan Ambient, From Pale Hands to Weary Skies (Lotusspike)
• Janek Schaefer, Extended Play (Line)
• Kalte, The Lanthanide Series (stasisfield.com)
• Stray Ghost, Losthilde (Highpoint Lowlife)
• Parts & Labor, Receivers (Jagjaguwar)
• erikm & Thomas Lehn, Les Protorythmiques (Room40)
• Jacaszek, Treny (Miasmah)
• J. S. Bach, Art of Fugue (Calefax Reed Quintet) (MDG)