Erik Chisholm: Simoon - Chisholm / Irwin / Drummond / Ryan CD

The Simoon- the violent, hot wind that blows in the North African desert- gives its name to August Strindbergs psychological drama, published in 1889 and later described by the Glaswegian composer Erik Chisholm as exciting and frightening. Third in a triptych of operas which the composer wrote after his move to South Africa in the late 1940s, his adaptation of Strindbergs play evokes the desert setting through a blend of the Hindustani scales he had studied in wartime India and a skillful use of free twelve-tone technique, but was never performed with orchestra in his own lifetime. Restored here to full color, this terrifyingly compact fifty-minute work reveals Chisholms ability to create music of extraordinary sensuality in which the senses are hideously deceived, the intense exoticism both beautiful and a parody of its own beauty. Psychologically brutal, its sensuality feeds upon death, whil its subject matter was as thoroughly topical in its own time as it is resonant today, turning as it does on a confrontation between faiths and on the consequences of colonial aggression. Simoon presents no easy answers, but this brave work gives powerful expression to powerful emotions and beliefs; it is an undoubted twentieth-century masterpiece.Additional Info: Personnel: Markus Sieber (vocals, guitar); Angelika Baumbach (vocals, harp, piano, harmonium); Jamshied Sharifi (electric guitar, accordion, keyboards); Megan Gould (violin, viola); Yoed Nir (cello, electric cello); Anders Bostrom (bamboo flute); Roubik Aroutiounian (duduk); Ramesh Kannan (tabla); Benjamin Wittman (percussion).

Specifics

• Album: Erik Chisholm: Simoon
• Artist: Chisholm / Irwin / Drummond / Ryan
• Label: Delphian
• Genre: Classical
• MPN: DCD34139

. Scene One
1. Introduction
2. La Ilaha Illa'llah!
3. Biskra! Do You Still Know How To Hate?
4. Ever Since My Eyes First Fell Upon You
5. I Am Going Now To Sleep Beside The Spring
6. My Eyes Are Already Beginning To See Red
. Scene Two
7. The Simoon Is Here
8. That Was The Dog That Bit You!
9. Biskra, Biskra, Biskra, Simoon, Simoon
10. I Am Ali The Guide
11. I Hear The Murmuring Of A Spring
12. What Do You See Now?
13. Now You Are Dying, Frank
14. Can You Hear The Drums?
15. Yes, You Are Dead!
. Scene Three
16. Simoon! Simoon!

• We ship across Australia, including major cities like: Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra, Newcastle and the Gold Coast