PHIL KLINE: Around the World in a Daze – 2 DVDs, the first containing the ten-movement work illustrated with slides, in DVD-Audio surround, DD 5.1 surround and PCM stereo, and DTS 5.1 surround. 2nd DVD: video with DTS & DD surround – “Meditation” + Phil Kline interviewed by John Schaefer. DVD 1: 65:17; DVD 2: 44:41 Starkland S-2015 ****:
This is another new release that could fit into so many categories – DualDisc, DVDs, Hi-Res. Phil Kline is really more of a conceptual artist who works with spatial sounds than a new music composer. He is famous for his gutsy song cycle Zippo Songs, based on the inscriptions soldier’s made on their Zippo lighters in Vietnam, and for his Unsilent Night events which involve hundreds of boomboxes carried thru various cities’ streets during the holiday season.
The ten sections of Around the World in a Daze make use of Kline’s familiar “boombox orchestra,” multiple overlaid vocals, guitars, tiny violins, percussion, various electronica, and recordings made in the field. The first piece was mostly collected by the composer simply hanging a pair of mikes out of the window of his studio on Henry Street in an industrial area of NYC on a July evening. The final one takes us around the world to dusk at a watering hole in the Central African Republic, where various wild animals and hundreds of noisy parrots are hanging out. The main work of the series is “Pennies From Heaven” – an 18-minute showering of bell-like descending tones completely encircling the listener. “Luv U 2 Death” is a short DJ-type mix of snippets from Wagner’s Liebestod, and “On the Waterfront” is a collage of breathing sounds, possibly sexual. “Wailing Wall” is aptly communicated with multiple keening, spooky-sounding voices. A Bach Prelude in B Flat minor is explored in Prelude,” partially recorded outdoors at the train station in Zurich.
The video on DVD 2 is simply a home video camera pointing straight ahead, held by someone who is – as the subtitle states – running as fast as they can. Halfway thru it reverses back to the beginning, accompanied by breathless fast-moving sounds that are anything like a Meditation. The interview with Kline – by the host of the new music program on WNYC in NYC – is quite interesting and also in surround sound if you wish.
At first hearing Disc 1 may seem like experimental do-it-yourself electroacoustic music which to my ears has never approached the communicative powers of the early French musique concrete classics (before they even had recording tape!). However, the deep involvement in these ambient fields made possible by the hi-res surround sound takes things to a whole different dimension. I seem to notice an even more pronounced improvement in clarity and transparency of the DVD-Audio feed over even the DTS surround than with standard classical recordings. The effect is quite overwhelming, whether played back loudly or at a very low overall volume. Truly a remarkable sonic experience, and one made to order for the curious audiophile.
TrackList:
The Housatonic at Henry Street
Svarga Yatra
The Maryland Sample
Pennies from Heaven
On the Waterfront
Luv U 2 Death
The Wailing Wall
Grand Etude for the Elevation
Prelude
The Housatonic at Dzanga
– John Sunier
