Greg Rubin, TC ’11, Modern Love champion, will be taking over for Herald A&E editor Michael Liuzzi this semester to lead the weekly quest for a rich and diverse iTunes library.

I liked January.  Vampire Weekend charmed the hell out of me, Beach House filled that dreamy-druggy niche, Gucci Mane got the hipster treatment we’ve all been longing for…I downloaded a lot of stuff that I’m going to listen to a lot of times and enjoy a lot.

But the “this” that I want you to “Download” is not an easy listen, or one that’s going to amass too many plays in your iTunes anytime soon.  It’s an opera, it’s an hour and a half long, and it’s based on Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species.  A significant amount of it is dedicated to discordant sounds, and you’ll have to sit through more than a couple minutes of simulated bird calls.

It’s not perfect, but it’s worth it.

Swedish brother-sister duo The Knife, who in collaboration with Mt Sims and Planningtorock are responsible for Tomorrow, in a Year, are among the greatest and certainly the most inventive artists in recent years.  It’s not accurate to say they don’t sound like anything else, because they do sound a bit like Björk, but the universe they’ve created for themselves is new and whole and takes you in right away.  You may have heard their single “Heartbeats,” but they’ve gotten much weirder since then; besides making political and otherwise zany acceptance speeches at awards shows, they mastered a chilling otherwordly tenor on their 2006 masterpiece Silent Shout and on vocalist Karen Dreijer Andersen’s well-received solo effort from last year, Fever Ray.  Their latest work spreads that mood across a bigger canvas, and its grip stays firm.

Tomorrow’s territory is often a cold and sharp one–melodically brilliant with the sensibilities of a sequencer.  But The Knife sound organic just as easily, something that was always obvious even through their drum machines—they flourish in beat-freed ambient sections, and their songs are beautiful even when they move in alien lockstep.  In fact, where synthesized drums are replaced with real ones, an influence is unearthed that had been hiding below the electronica all these years: centuries-old European music.  No wonder they use so many medieval intervals (for the musically-minded: these guys like perfect fifths); no wonder they chose an ancient art form for their latest project. As for Darwin, the modern aspect of the opera, we’re all going to have to wait for a libretto before it starts making any sense.

If you don’t have time for the whole thing (released last Thursday, easily torrented), download “Coloring of Pigeons” or at least watch the seven-minute trailer for the opera on YouTube.  Check the unexpected grooves at 3:10 and 5:53.