Great news, I’m a huge fan of Patton, and I love Berio’s work:
Mike Patton, joined by the Brussels-based Ictus Ensemble, pay tribute to pioneering composer Luciano Berio with the July 2 release of Laborintus II via Ipecac Recordings.
Berio, a groundbreaking Italian composer whose lengthy list of compositions revel in experimentation and intuitively fuse classical, jazz and electronic music, created Laborintus II in 1965 to mark the 700th anniversary of Dante’s birth. The composition is based on the “Laborintus” poem by Edoardo Sanguineti. Laborintus II highlights the timelessness of love and mourning and is told in three voices. In 1972, Berio performed Laborintus II at the Holland Festival, the Dutch premiere of the piece, with a set that included a giant blow-up doll and old car tires.
Patton, who has continually paid tribute to Italian composers, most recently with his 2011 Mondo Cane album, discussed the differences and similarities between Berio, Morricone and Nono in an interview with Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, ” I can listen to Berio and Nono as easily as I can to Morricone but like all modern music of Italy, it is unfortunately marginalized. Maybe because of the language barrier, maybe because it’s not easily understood. Berio, who was teaching in California when he wrote this piece, was listening to jazz, pop and folk music and incorporated all of it in his works without prejudice.”
We’ll be getting the promo for this soon, so expect a full review in the coming weeks. The performance is somewhat John Zorn-esque, with seemingly random stabs of orchestral soundm with Patton ‘narrating’ the performance.
If you’re not already acquainted with the Berio performance by Patton, start here, and keep searching:
