ELODIE LAUTEN - The Death Of Don Juan
An artifact of early digital recording and composition (the year: 1985; the main tool: the Fairlight CMI polyphonic sampling synthesizer), Don Juan transcends both the era of its making and the many styles it encompasses, from speedy-grid minimalism to pensive lyre passages (played on an electro-acoustic model of Lauten's own invention, the Trine) and drawn-out, haunting choral singing (as on the mid-opera "Death Of A Woman", where Don Juan himself is voiced by Arthur Russell--his chief accomplice Peter Zummo also features prominently throughout). This reissue continues Unseen Worlds' mandate, giving deserving cult avant-garde classical works a new audience.
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