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Michael Adamis: Kratima (excerpt, 1971)
From the album Creelpolation 1 (2006)
Because of my host’s somewhat stingy 10 megabyte upload limit, I cannot feature this piece in its entirety. Fortunately, Kratima has a clean break in the music around the midway point, so I’ve taken the liberty of excerpting the second half of the piece. If you have the opportunity, please do subject yourself to the unadulterated 11-minute experience of this obscure marvel of electro-acoustic art.
Kratima, performed by an orchestra, a psaltist (solo vocalist), and tape or (less likely) live electronics, has an episodic structure throughout: distinct sound-collages succeed one another in a somewhat disconnected fashion. However the piece is tied together by a number of recurring timbres or textures, such as the plaintive voice of the psaltist or the frenetic electro-free jazz noodling that surfaces intermittently to jostle the otherwise imposing langor of the music.
The ending of Kratima, if experienced at a sufficient level of volume, is viscerally disturbing.
There is sadly very little information about Adamis on the internet. One available source does offer a solid introduction to his music.
Played 31 time(s).
April 23, 2009, 8:07pm
