Mannheim Steamroller

Mannheim Steamroller plays instrumental music that sets Baroque figures against rock drumming and layered synthesizers. Harpsichord and recorder sit alongside electric bass and keyboards, and the result belongs to neither early music nor rock but to a deliberate hybrid of the two, written and produced as a single idea rather than assembled from arrangements.

The catalogue runs along two lines. The Fresh Aire records are suites of original instrumental writing built on recurring themes and unusual timbres, and were first circulated as demonstration material for audio equipment because of their dynamic range and separation. The Christmas records are the other half, taking carols and seasonal standards and rebuilding them with the same mixture of period instruments, orchestral colour and electronics — which is why a familiar tune in this group's hands rarely sounds like anyone else's.

Chip Davis founded the project in 1974 and has shaped it since as composer and producer. He trained as a bassoonist and worked in music teaching and in advertising before turning to records, and when established labels declined the music he issued it himself. The first Christmas album followed in 1984 and carried the group from a specialist audience to a broad one. It holds a Grammy Award for Best New Age Album, and its records have sold in the tens of millions.

Played live, the music is performed rather than triggered, and the contrast that defines the records is sharper in a room: a plucked harpsichord line answered by a drum kit, a recorder melody opening out into massed strings. The dynamic swings are wide, dropping close to silence and returning to full weight inside a single piece.

It is music for listeners who want seasonal repertoire treated as serious arrangement, and for anyone curious about what Baroque counterpoint sounds like with a rhythm section behind it.