Alice Shields - Apocalypse - An Electronic Opera (c) 1993 Composers
Artist....: Alice Shields
Album.....: Apocalypse - An Electronic Opera
Type......: Album
Source....: CDDA
Tracks....: 14
Genre.....: Electronic
Label.....: Composers Recordings
Catalogue#: CD 647
Encoder...: LAME 3.97
Quality...: VBR kbps / 44.1KHz / Joint-Stereo
URL.......: http://aliceshields.com/
Tracklist:
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01 Sacrifice 10:10
02 The Sea 03:51
03 First Greeting 19:16
04 Here 01:18
05 Truth 03:12
06 On The Dark Mountain 03:36
07 Final Question Aeon 05:20
08 Dismemberment And Eating 02:45
09 Someone, I Say, Will Remember Us 01:53
10 Someone Spoke Of Your Death 03:44
11 Apocalypse Song 02:52
12 Heat Drum 02:26
13 Organ Screaming 06:26
14 The Dawn Wind 01:11
Total:91,0 MB / 68:00 min
Release Notes:
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Quite strange and avantgarde/experimental and electronic
Apocalypse by American composer Alice Shields is a multilingual
electronic opera for live singers and recorded voices. This CD
recording is mostly comprised of the tape component that accompanies
the opera when performed live. The work was composed in 1990, utilizing
MIDI instruments and analog electronic music technology, and was
realized at the Columbia University Electronic Music Centre.
Apocalypse is one of the first electronic operas composed in America.
It is singular in that the composer herself plays most of the singing
and spoken roles, has used only her voice for the creation of the tape
part, and has also played all keyboards and synthesizers. Her
collaborators on this recording are baritone Michael Willson, who sings
the role of Shiva in scenes 46 Aeon and 60 Organ Screaming, and Jim
Matus who performs digestive sounds on command in scene 50
Dismemberment and Eating.
In Apocalypse the central character is The Woman who journeys from
conception, to birth, to her meeting with and initiation by the goddess
The Seaweed, a biological Aphrodite who teaches empathy, emotional
attachment and reverence for all life. The Woman prepares herself to
meet the erotic god Shiva, who also teaches identification with all
life, the breaking of the illusion of separateness, through the vivid
metaphor of sexuality. The climactic point of Apocalypse is the
ritualized union of The Woman with Shiva, depicted as a stylized
enactment of the Tantrik maithuna, the love-making of Shiva and Shakti,
the intercourse of form and energy, of spirit and matter, asceticism
and sensuality.
Apocalypse demands all of your attention because this sort of
sensual/intellectual music requires more than one listening session to
begin grasping its force, its power of persuasion, and the beauty of
its engaging rhythms, colors and textures. This music is highly
recommended in a field that has still very few examples.
Produced by Alice Shields, this CRI compact disc also credits the
Quality Studios and Studio PASS, both in New York.
alcides lanza