the urmuz epigrams (2018)
Track Listing:
Modern Reconstructions
1. Disgusted with Life
2. This Piano Lid Serves as a Wall
3. With Wet Clothes and Disheveled Hair He Wandered in the Dead of Night in Search of Shelter
4. Then Again, Who Amongst us can Complain
5. A Rain of Threats and Screams
6. The Pelican or the Pelicaness
7. After That the Funnel Became a Symbol
8. Desperate from Having Been Left without a Bladder
Original Versions, privately pressed on the Romanian Pahuciphone Label circa 1923.
9. Disgusted with Life
10. This Piano Lid Serves as a Wall
11. With Wet Clothes and Disheveled Hair He Wandered in the Dead of Night in Search of Shelter
12. Then Again, Who Amongst us can Complain
13. A Rain of Threats and Screams
14. The Pelican or the Pelicaness
15. After That the Funnel Became a Symbol
16. Desperate from Having Been Left without a Bladder
Personnel:
Ches Smith: Drums, Percussion, Vibraphone, Glockenspiel, Voice
John Zorn: Saxophone, Piano, Organ, Sound Effects, Guitar, Bass, Game Calls, Percussion, Voice
Production:
All music composed, arranged and conducted by John Zorn
Produced by John Zorn
Associate Producer - Kazunori Sugiyama
Recorded September 27-28, 2017 and mixed October 2017 by Marc Urselli at EastSide Sound, NYC
Mastering by Scott Hull, NYC
Design - Chippy (Heung-Heung Chin)
Special Thanks to Slusser Laboratories, Tristan Tzara, Eugene Ionesco and The Pahuci Brotherhood.
TZADIK Blurb
With The Urmuz Epigrams Zorn returns to his roots, using the recording studio as instrument to create an intensely personal suite of compositions in the style of his legendary File Card compositions and Zoetropes. Dedicated to the visionary Romanian writer Urmuz whose small, scattered body of work predated Dadaism by decades, The Urmuz Epigrams is a suite of surrealistic miniatures more akin to philosophical aphorisms than actual music. The pieces are presented here in two iterations, as a set of “rare 78rpm records” complete with surface scratches and limited dynamic range, and as a modern reconstruction of same with the full blown studio sound presented in all its perplexing glory. Some of the craziest music in the Zorn catalog!
Series: Archival Series
Catalogue Number: TZ8358
Release Date: January 2018