Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri
Alvin Curran’s quietly joyful, spiritually enhancing, escapist 1975 masterpiece gets a new lease of life on Oren Ambarchi’s Black Truffle, heralding its wondrous mix of naif yet forward-looking experiments for new ears - trust there’s nowt quite like it!
A real archival treasure, ‘Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri’ reveals its wonderful mix of children’s voices, animal noise, and genteel lysergic magick for the first time since its 1978 release. It began some years prior in 1974 as a solo performance that was later developed at the esteemed RCA Studios, Rome, where its elusive kaleidoscopic form took shape. Side A starts out with Annea Lockwood-like levels of sensitivity, beautifully eliding cat purrs into toy piani, piano and the sound of Mio Hani (a five year old Japanese girl) counting in Italian, then the atmosphere of a tropical bird house at London Zoo, and kids at a playground in the city.
It’s all flush with a wide eyed wonder and playful shocks that emerge from its near subliminal, and much sharper transitions between parts, and follows into monologue in English and Italian by Alexis Rzewski that recounts (most likely) a Tintin story ‘L’Étoile mystérieuse’ about giant spiders in space, as well memories of his birthday party and its chocolate cake, lead the 2nd part into equally wonderful places, accompanied by flourishes of piani and soon Curran’s quick/slow solo piano rushes that turn into a rendition of Ray Charles’ ‘Georgia on my Mind.’
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Alvin Curran’s quietly joyful, spiritually enhancing, escapist 1975 masterpiece gets a new lease of life on Oren Ambarchi’s Black Truffle, heralding its wondrous mix of naif yet forward-looking experiments for new ears - trust there’s nowt quite like it!
A real archival treasure, ‘Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri’ reveals its wonderful mix of children’s voices, animal noise, and genteel lysergic magick for the first time since its 1978 release. It began some years prior in 1974 as a solo performance that was later developed at the esteemed RCA Studios, Rome, where its elusive kaleidoscopic form took shape. Side A starts out with Annea Lockwood-like levels of sensitivity, beautifully eliding cat purrs into toy piani, piano and the sound of Mio Hani (a five year old Japanese girl) counting in Italian, then the atmosphere of a tropical bird house at London Zoo, and kids at a playground in the city.
It’s all flush with a wide eyed wonder and playful shocks that emerge from its near subliminal, and much sharper transitions between parts, and follows into monologue in English and Italian by Alexis Rzewski that recounts (most likely) a Tintin story ‘L’Étoile mystérieuse’ about giant spiders in space, as well memories of his birthday party and its chocolate cake, lead the 2nd part into equally wonderful places, accompanied by flourishes of piani and soon Curran’s quick/slow solo piano rushes that turn into a rendition of Ray Charles’ ‘Georgia on my Mind.’
Alvin Curran’s quietly joyful, spiritually enhancing, escapist 1975 masterpiece gets a new lease of life on Oren Ambarchi’s Black Truffle, heralding its wondrous mix of naif yet forward-looking experiments for new ears - trust there’s nowt quite like it!
A real archival treasure, ‘Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri’ reveals its wonderful mix of children’s voices, animal noise, and genteel lysergic magick for the first time since its 1978 release. It began some years prior in 1974 as a solo performance that was later developed at the esteemed RCA Studios, Rome, where its elusive kaleidoscopic form took shape. Side A starts out with Annea Lockwood-like levels of sensitivity, beautifully eliding cat purrs into toy piani, piano and the sound of Mio Hani (a five year old Japanese girl) counting in Italian, then the atmosphere of a tropical bird house at London Zoo, and kids at a playground in the city.
It’s all flush with a wide eyed wonder and playful shocks that emerge from its near subliminal, and much sharper transitions between parts, and follows into monologue in English and Italian by Alexis Rzewski that recounts (most likely) a Tintin story ‘L’Étoile mystérieuse’ about giant spiders in space, as well memories of his birthday party and its chocolate cake, lead the 2nd part into equally wonderful places, accompanied by flourishes of piani and soon Curran’s quick/slow solo piano rushes that turn into a rendition of Ray Charles’ ‘Georgia on my Mind.’
Alvin Curran’s quietly joyful, spiritually enhancing, escapist 1975 masterpiece gets a new lease of life on Oren Ambarchi’s Black Truffle, heralding its wondrous mix of naif yet forward-looking experiments for new ears - trust there’s nowt quite like it!
A real archival treasure, ‘Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri’ reveals its wonderful mix of children’s voices, animal noise, and genteel lysergic magick for the first time since its 1978 release. It began some years prior in 1974 as a solo performance that was later developed at the esteemed RCA Studios, Rome, where its elusive kaleidoscopic form took shape. Side A starts out with Annea Lockwood-like levels of sensitivity, beautifully eliding cat purrs into toy piani, piano and the sound of Mio Hani (a five year old Japanese girl) counting in Italian, then the atmosphere of a tropical bird house at London Zoo, and kids at a playground in the city.
It’s all flush with a wide eyed wonder and playful shocks that emerge from its near subliminal, and much sharper transitions between parts, and follows into monologue in English and Italian by Alexis Rzewski that recounts (most likely) a Tintin story ‘L’Étoile mystérieuse’ about giant spiders in space, as well memories of his birthday party and its chocolate cake, lead the 2nd part into equally wonderful places, accompanied by flourishes of piani and soon Curran’s quick/slow solo piano rushes that turn into a rendition of Ray Charles’ ‘Georgia on my Mind.’
Back in stock - Featuring newly remastered audio, an inner sleeve with an excerpt of the score, and new reflections on the work by Alvin Curran and Francis Plagne.
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Alvin Curran’s quietly joyful, spiritually enhancing, escapist 1975 masterpiece gets a new lease of life on Oren Ambarchi’s Black Truffle, heralding its wondrous mix of naif yet forward-looking experiments for new ears - trust there’s nowt quite like it!
A real archival treasure, ‘Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri’ reveals its wonderful mix of children’s voices, animal noise, and genteel lysergic magick for the first time since its 1978 release. It began some years prior in 1974 as a solo performance that was later developed at the esteemed RCA Studios, Rome, where its elusive kaleidoscopic form took shape. Side A starts out with Annea Lockwood-like levels of sensitivity, beautifully eliding cat purrs into toy piani, piano and the sound of Mio Hani (a five year old Japanese girl) counting in Italian, then the atmosphere of a tropical bird house at London Zoo, and kids at a playground in the city.
It’s all flush with a wide eyed wonder and playful shocks that emerge from its near subliminal, and much sharper transitions between parts, and follows into monologue in English and Italian by Alexis Rzewski that recounts (most likely) a Tintin story ‘L’Étoile mystérieuse’ about giant spiders in space, as well memories of his birthday party and its chocolate cake, lead the 2nd part into equally wonderful places, accompanied by flourishes of piani and soon Curran’s quick/slow solo piano rushes that turn into a rendition of Ray Charles’ ‘Georgia on my Mind.’