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Paul Dresher: Slow Fire

CD Review:
"Rinde Eckert is like Laurie Anderson with an attitude or Tom Waits with a voice... Framed by a Dresher score that integrates hyper-kinetic, minimalist funk, mysterious atmospheres, gamelan cycles, and some burning electric guitar, Eckert gives a mesmerizing recitation... psychotic in its raw power."

Fanfare:
"An essential piece... One of the most fruitful pieces of new music theater to come out of the US in the last couple of decades."

In Paul Dresher's "electric opera" Slow Fire with Rinde Eckert, two of America's most dynamic forces in contemporary performance collaborate to create a truly original musical experience that has been described as a "tour de force of intellectual and emotional artistry... a masterpiece" (San Francisco Chronicle). A haunting musical monodrama about a paranoid-delusional man and his search for values in a rapidly changing world, Slow Fire blends the forms of opera, rock, and post-minimalist electronic music, pushing the boundaries of music theatre to a new and breathtaking breakthrough. Slow Fire "makes much celebrated post-modern music theatre seem not just impressionistic, but escapist by comparison" (Village Voice).

Dresher's music has diverse roots, including contemporary classical music, rock 'n' roll, minimalism, and his years of study of the classical musics of India, Africa, and Indonesia. His music creates a rich, expansive sonic experience that "ranges from delicately layered chamber work to throbbing contrapuntal textures that hit with the crash of high-voltage rock" (Newsweek). Writer-singer Rinde Eckert's performances have been described by John Rockwell (New York Times) as "the most striking performance art this writer has encountered since the early days of Laurie Anderson."

Having played to tens of thousands of enthusiastic viewers across the country, Slow Fire is "music/theatre that firmly places Dresher in the forefront of the new breed of American composers" (San Francisco Examiner).

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Slow Fire
  Sleeping With The Light On
  Duck Blind
  Dad's Letter
  The Magazine Dream
  Swimming
  The Sunday Paper
  Match Stick Empire
  Riding Shotgun
  Without A Word
  Eyes Open

Music by Paul Dresher
Lyrics by Rinde Eckert
Performed by Rinde Eckert and
the Paul Dresher Ensemble

Total Time 57:18
 

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