STEPHEN EMMER?S MUSIC-AND-SPOKEN WORD PROJECT, RECITEMENT, NOW AVAILABLE IN THE U.S. ON ALLEGRO MUSIC
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Innovative Album Produced and Mixed by Tony Visconti Features Original Music Composed, Arranged and Performed by Emmer With Recordings, New and Appropriated, of Lou Reed, Kazu Makino (Blonde Redhead), Ken Nordine, Allen Ginsberg, Others.
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Having already earned considerable international acclaim, Recitement, the literary-musical hybrid from Dutch avant-garde composer Stephen Emmer, is now available in the U.S. via Allegro Music.
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Recitement is an unprecedented collection of recorded literary and poetic texts?some read by their authors, others interpreted by a diversity of contemporary artists. The music complementing the vocal and spoken tracks?music composed, arranged and, for the most part, performed by Emmer?is an equally diverse fusion of styles: modern classical chamber music, jazz noir, ambient electronics, melodic pop, experimental rock, rap and hip-hop, among others. To the credit of Emmer and producer-mixer Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T. Rex, Morrissey, Angelique Kidjo, etc.), Recitement coheres seamlessly and even displays that rare
kind of deliberate restraint that is the province of truly accomplished artists. Emmer began the Recitement project with the intention of scoring various fragments of literature and verse, and the compositions and performances indeed communicate sentiments and even narratives contained in the writings.
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Conversely, Emmer finds so much music in the spoken word: the syncopated cadence of Lou Reed reading Paul Theroux; the rich baritones of Richard Burton and Ken Nordine; the subtly melodic way that Jorge Luis Borges seems to sing when his reading voice is surrounded by Emmer?s lush orchestration; the way that Carlos Drummond de Andrade?s voice sounds like another horn in ?O Enterado Vivo??albeit one that speaks Portuguese; the shimmering of Kuzu Makino?s (Blonde Redhead) voice when she interprets Yoko Ono and duets with Samuel Beckett in ?Snow Is Falling? and its reprise, which bookend the 17-composition album. Allen Ginsberg, who learned songwriting from nowlegendary downtown New York musicians and recorded his own songs with some of them as accompanists, sounds far more musical here.
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The licensing work for Recitement was in itself a colossal task, with sources ranging from Charles Baudelaire and Samuel Beckett to Yoko Ono, Alessandro Baricco, Christopher Fry, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Paul Theroux, Victoria Ocampo, Remco Campert, Hugo Claus and Thomas Hardy.
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Aside from composing and performing much of the music, Emmer recruited the vocalists listed above and others, including jazz bandleader and horn player Benjamin Herman; pianist Mike Garson (David Bowie, Smashing Pumpkins); classical singer Maja Roodveldt, of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra; old-school Postman rapper Shyrock; drummer Joost Kroon, of New Cool Collective; and the Dutch pop duo Bauer (half of which is ex-Bettie Serveert member Berend Dubbe).
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Recitement was recorded at Amsterdam?s Studio 150 with Paul Weller engineer Joeri Saal, and was mixed at Phillip Glass’ Looking Glass Studios in New York by Tony Visconti, who describes Emmer as ?one of those musicians/composers who know the musical rules best and therefore also how to break them.?
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Allegro Music released the album in the U.S. October 14. It has received praise from Pitchfork, KCRW, Magnet, Planet and others. The Supertracks label recently released Recitement in the UK to acclaim from the likes of Word Magazine, Record Collector, The Yorkshire Evening Post and many others. The Uncut review asks, ?Ever wondered how Bowie?s Low would have sounded if the art of noise had produced it and recruited Richard Burton to do the vocals??