Athlantis | 
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| Creators: Eyvind Kang, Aldo Sisillo, Ensemble Di Ottoni Di Modena, Alberto Capelli, Jessica Kenney, Mike Patton
Label: Ipecac Recordings
Category: Music
List Price: $16.98
Buy New: $8.49
You Save: $8.49 (50%)
New (21) Used (8) from $7.10
Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 137817
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 87
UPC: 689230008729
EAN: 0689230008729
ASIN: B000QUU4YG
Release Date: July 10, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Ministers Of Friday | | • | Vespertiliones | | • | Andegavenses | | • | Rabianara | | • | Inquisitio | | • | Ros Vespertinus | | • | Conciliator | | • | Iupitter | | • | Repetitio | | • | Lamentatio | | • | Athlantis | | • | Aquilas |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Album Description
"In Regina, Saskatchewan, our elementary school teacher used to play classical records, and make large diagrams which followed the form of the music- while listening she would point to the place in the diagram, and introduce a lot of us kids to the repertoire that way. I got interested in music, started learning the violin. PAs a teenager, I played in the youth orchestra, as well as played bass in some top 40 bands. I listened to a lot of classical music, as well as stuff like Prince, Bad Brains, etc. I moved over to Seattle in the early 90s, where I met the jazz violinist Michael White, who was an enormous influence on me. At Cornish college I went to talks by John Cage, Lou Harrison, Toru Takemitsu, which made a strong impression. In '98 I studied with the great violinist Dr. N. Rajam in Mumbai, which really changed the way I heard music. I'm interested in "sound", and in all the musical traditions that treat of it. I've met a lot of great musicians and learned from them. PI played viola with different bands, like Bill Frisell and Secret Chiefs, and created string arrangements for a lot of other artists, Laurie Anderson, Blonde Redhead, Laura Veirs, the Stares, and many more. It's great to collaborate with musicians, to see how it works, from different points of view, how it sounds, how they do it, what one listens to in sound. I don't believe you can know an objective music with notes, tempos, etc; rather, it's mostly about the process which is intersubjective. At the same time, when the thought of music appears, I bring it out. The CDs that I've recorded, 7 NADEs and Theater of Mineral NADEs, the Story of Iceland, Live Low to the Earth in the Iron Age, Virginal Co-ordinates, are mostly about the thought of music, the idea that you get, when you think of a sound, which triggers a memory, for example, which makes you feel a certain way. PI always love to read Renaissance era literature and philosophy, so writing the choral piece Athlantis was a great chance to interact with one of my favorites, Giordano Bruno. The book that I worked with is called Cantus Circaeus. I went to the Ritman library in Amsterdam and held the original edition in my hands; I went through it page by page. Surprisingly, it was a very small book, sort of like those moleskin notebooks that people carry around these days. While composing, I sometimes felt that I was sharing a kind of joke, or riddle, with Bruno, that we were almost laughing together. I don't know why, but I was compelled to combine his text with some obscure poems from Bishop Marbode of Rennes, and some lines from the Hungarian epic Planctus Destructionis. PThe piece is something like an oratorio, with the incredible singers Mike Patton and Jessika Kenney on the main parts. I studied and set the text; I did the ground work and created the musical space. All of the singers, choir and soloists, came in and inhabited it and made it their own." P- Eyvind Kang, 2007
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| Customer Reviews:
Eyvinds creative classical sound August 13, 2008
Christopher McCann (another world)
Very Classical sound to this album, much like eyvinds other recent albums. Quite a mello sound , dont expect any crazy break neck speed violin playing, like his SC3 contributions! A lot more vocals than many of his other albums I have heard, with an ancient occultish style, almost reminds me of some gregorian style chanting. I got this one for the main reason that it has Mike Patton joining in with vocals for some tracks! Very different to hear mike singing in this style but he does it well, no surprise he tackles the foriegn language with ease.Adorn your druidic robes,Good soundtrack for any solstice rituals you have planned!
 Eyvind Kang's "Athlantis" April 25, 2008
Justin St. Vincent (Auckland, New Zealand)
Eyvind Kang's "Athlantis" is a colourful creation weaving threads from choral and orchestral soundscapes. An aural essence that sounds both holy and haunting, inspired by arcane medieval texts from French hymnologist Marbod of Rennes, and Italian heretical philosopher Giordano Bruno. Athlantis includes operatic gymnastics from virtuoso vocalists Mike Patton and Jessika Kenney, among an incredible chorus of singers and musicians recorded live at Italy's Angelica and l'Altro Suono Festival during May 2006. Eyvind Kang has established himself as an enigmatic composer capable of exposing musical traditions that are glorious and triumphant.
 Very problematic August 29, 2007
Jan P. Dennis (Monument, CO USA)
7 out of 16 found this review helpful
What we've got here is arcane Medieval texts by the burned-at-the-stake heretic Giordano Bruno appropriated as neo-Gregorian chant by that musical mercurialist, Evyind Kang. br / br /Hmmmm. br / br /OK. I know Evyind Kang, a musician for whom I have the greatest respect, is probably mainly concerned with the aural soundscape that emerges from the implementation and manipulation of these texts, but what about their intrinsic meaning? Can we just set that aside? Do we give Kang a free pass in selecting obscure Medieval texts of an, admittedly, heretical nature? Do we just wave a wand over this rank obscurantism? Or do we take him to task? What ARE his purposes? Is this some kind of arcane deconstruction of the West? I'd say so. br / br /So what? A fair question. Does it matter that artists purvey their own idiosyncratic visions, laying waste 2000 years of Western hegemony? Certainly, they are free to do so. That's what's great about the West and not so great about, say, Islam. But let's at least be aware of what's going on here. br / br /Me, I'm struggling to sign on with this project from a number of standpoints. First, I don't think it really succeeds from a purely musical perspective: There's just too much aural preciousness for my tastes. More importantly, as an exercise in Western philosophico/musical deconstructionism, it seems rather strained: really, was Giordano Bruno all that compelling a figure in the history of the West? Do we really want to dredge up quasi-Galileo problematics today? Apparently, some do. More power to them, but I demure. Thirdly, can a figure as marginalized as Bruno bear the weight Kang assigns him? I think not. br / br /My considered opinion is that this is not one of Kang's more successful ventures. Nevertheless, do check out his other forays into postmodern musical madness.
Kang music August 18, 2007
Mr. Richard K. Weems (Fair Lawn, NJ USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Eyvind Kang is indeed enigmatic. His first release on Tzadik, 7 NADEs, was a blizzard of sound, from noise to jazz to French lyrics. His followup, Theater of Mineral NADEs, was a little more partitioned, but still a great mix of styles, from ancient rhythms to reggae. From there, he has done work with Secret Chiefs 3 (check out Second Grand Constitution and Bylaws, Hurqalya if you want to hear Secret Chiefs 3 at their Kang best), the Bill Frisell quartet, and seems to play any kind of music invented (and then some). br / br /But all in all, Kang seems to be the most modern kind of composer--not one who is trying to revive European traditions or fight entropy and try to revive classical traditions by inventing some new style he can talk about on the lecture circuit, but takes the essences of music around him, whether it be Zornian noise or simple rhythms; this in confirmed in this recording, a cycle of choral and orchestral music that feels more fresh and accesible than many other academic classical music nowadays. br / br /What I love most about Kang is his sense of earnestness, even when doing something as strange as The Visible Sign of the Invisible Order, for any kind of music needs such focused, immediate effort. Mike Patton contributes his voice to this project, though don't expect to hear anything like his Hemophiliac work, and maybe Patton's voice stands out a little too easily from the other choral work here, but Kang clearly has a sense of control here, a sound that is more contemporary than backward-looking. br / br /Maybe not a toe-tapper, but let's face it--if you're a fan of Eyvind Kang, and I'm talking ALL of Eyvind Kang, from Dying Ground to The Story of Iceland to Sweetness of Sickness, you must not be expecting anything terribly familiar. This is Kang music, and I love to sit back and let this guy tell me with every recording what that really means. br /
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