Freitag, 14. Februar 2020

Dagmar Krause, Harold Schelinx, Ronald Heiloo - Commuters (EP, 1983)

The EP "Commuters", a one-time collaboration between Slapp Happy vocalist Dagmar Krause and Amsterdam avant-garde composers Harold Schelinx and Ronald Heiloo, was first released as a limited pressing on Amphibious Records in 1983.

Soon deleted, it quickly became the Holy Grail fans of Krause were all after. The album was reissued in 2000 on La Cooka Ratcha (a Voiceprint imprint). Although it runs for only 16 minutes, "Commuters" contains ten songs and really should be perceived as a full album. Schelinx's short stories are set to dense piano pieces taking elements from Erik Satie, Charles Ives, and Kurt Weill. 

Krause's voice delivers the text in angular melodies in a way similar to her work with News From Babel (on Work Resumed on the Tower). These 60- to 120-second half-cabaret/half-atonal pieces are as complete as can be and the listener comes out of them as if the experience had taken an hour. The simplicity of the piano/voice setting is constantly challenged by the obscurity of the lyrics, the complexity of the melodies, and the sparse but very concentrated piano parts.

Tracklist:
The Ventriloquist
The Young Lieutenant
The Architect
The Poet
The Man On The Island
The Acrobat
The Organist
The Philosopher
The Gentleman On The Stairs
10 The Priest
11 The Fired One
12 A Hundred Eager Questions
13 The Organist
14 Too Much Presence

(128 - 192 kbps, front cover included)

4 Kommentare:

DL hat gesagt…

Bitrates are 192 and 128, but the music is great! Thx!

zero hat gesagt…

You are right, sorry for the mistake.

DL hat gesagt…

When bitrates are more important than the music, one should stop listening to music at all :)

zero hat gesagt…

That´s right, DL!

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