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Brilliantly
compiled, these CD's are more than just collections of songs about mortality.
As a whole, they form a unified composition, a meditation on the way different
cultures respond artistically to death, a statement on grieving and a
declaration of superb musical taste. Like a deft free-form radio show,
these CD's follow Albert Ayler with Robert Wyatt with a funeral in a village
in Ghana. Moody, atmospheric and moving, they segue Cassandra Wilson into
the Geto Boys, and slowly march through dirges from Lou Reed, Billie Holiday,
Lydia Mendoza, Tom Waits and. brass and vocal groups from Mexico, Albania
and Serbia. It may not seem like joyous holiday fare, but it's a perfect
way to reflect on those less fortunate. "...
at its best it provides some outstanding examples of how the worldīs cultures,
and their musicians, have come to terms with, and intermittently triumphed
over, the certainty that one day the music will stop." "The
prospect of eighty minutes worth of funeral dirges may sound too much
to bear. Certainly itīs no happy hootenanny, but miserable itīs not."
"The
two companion volumes are a feast of compulsive doom. Considering the
subject matter it is also strangely, compellingly uplifting." |
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last updated: 17.02.2002 | top |