Chimeras (album)
| Chimeras | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||||||||
| Studio album by John Zorn | ||||||||||
| Released | April 22, 2003 | |||||||||
| Recorded |
January 3 & 4, 2003, SUNY Purchase, New York "Postlude" recorded July 8, 2009, Jordan Hall, Boston | |||||||||
| Genre | Avant-garde, Contemporary classical music | |||||||||
| Length | 33:44 | |||||||||
| Label | Tzadik TZ 7085 | |||||||||
| Producer | John Zorn | |||||||||
| John Zorn chronology | ||||||||||
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Chimeras (sub-titled A Child’s Adventures in the Realms of the Unreal) is an album of contemporary classical music by American composer John Zorn featuring a 12 part piece inspired by Arnold Schoenberg's atonal composition "Pierrot Lunaire".[1] In 2010 the album was revised and re-recorded, with an additional "Postlude".[2]
Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    [3] |
| Pitchfork Media | [4] |
| Free Jazz Collective | [5] |
The Allmusic site awarded the album 3½ stars.[3] Writing for Pitchfork Media, Alexander Lloyd Linhardt stated "the piece itself is thrillingly diverse, suddenly going from luminous to lugubrious and from classical to chaotic. It's a bold, unexpected new chapter in Zorn's corpus, or it would be if we didn't expect that from him".[4] The Free Jazz Collective stated "it can be described as an absolute musical nightmare. It is dark, frightening, with light touches beaming through, like a lullaby arising out of violence, like a tiny light in the darkness giving you false hope of rescue, like friendly faces turning into gargoyles. Human warmth is present, but only as a delusion or deception... The music is as ambitious as it is pretentious, although it will not leave you indifferent".[5]
Track listing
All compositions by John Zorn
- "One" – 0:55
- "Two" – 2:42
- "Three" – 2:54
- "Four" – 2:05
- "Five" – 1:45
- "Six" – 2:08
- "Seven" – 4:38
- "Eight" – 3:19
- "Nine" – 2:45
- "Ten" – 2:53
- "Interlude" – 1:24 Track 4 on 2010 reissue
- "Eleven" – 3:18
- "Twelve" – 2:50
- "Postlude" - 0:16 Bonus track on 2010 reissue
Personnel
- Ilana Davidson – voice (tracks 2-5, 7, 8, 10, 12 & 13)
- Elizabeth Farnum – voice (tracks 10 & 12)
- Jennifer Choi – violin (tracks 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 & 12)
- Fred Sherry – cello (tracks 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12 & 13)
- Tara O'Connor – piccolo, flute, alto flute, bass flute (tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10 & 12)
- Michael Lowenstern – bass clarinet, clarinet (tracks 1, 4, 6, 9 & 12)
- Stephen Drury – piano, organ, celesta (tracks 1-3, 6, 8, 9, 12 & 13)
- William Winant – percussion (tracks 1, 3, 5-7 & 9-13)
- Brad Lubman – conductor
References
- ↑ Tzadik catalogue
- ↑ Tzadik catalogue
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Allmusic Review accessed October 31, 2013.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Linhardt, A. L. Pitchfork Media review September 8, 2003
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Stef, The Free Jazz Collective Review, Free Jazz Collective, April 21, 2010