Erling Wold + Douglas Kearney – Mordake
November 23rd, 2010
This disc of the compact variety showed up at random in my post office box containing, of all the unexpected things, a chamber opera! I’ve never been a huge fan of opera in general, and I don’t know much about it, but I’ll give it a shot. This classic good vs. evil story chronicles a tragic battle between an aristocratic scholar and musician named Edward Mordake and his sister, Brigit. Although the plot is rather fuzzy, I just can’t bring myself to spoil it. But, I can say that there is plenty of suspense, mayhem, murder and the protagonist sports a very unusual deformity in the form of a second face on the back of his head. Brandishing lines like, “Once, there was a boy who ate his family. He began with his sister while still in their mother,” the whole thing is deliciously bloody. And the musical backdrop, which is made of electronically processed orchestral music and sound effects, weaves it all into a demented whole–complete with oddball, hyper, melodic chamber music that alternates with airy yet unsettling drones. If you like contemporary opera or Macbeth, give violence a chance. Mordake delivers the pizza with a sinister smile.
Label: MinMax Music Catalog Number: CD 018 Format: CD Packaging: Jewel case Tracks: 14 Total Time: 57:45 Country: United States Released: 2010 More: Human Marvels, Official, SF Gate, Starkland, Wikipedia
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Posted by Arcane Candy