Meredith Monk - Dolmen Music

From Allmusic.com : "Meredith Monk has such a wonderful and unique vocal style that she is able to sing in complete abstraction (no known words or language for much of the album) yet maintain a very emotional and even sentimental quality in these abstractions, at times. Listeners who can get past just how unique and abstract her approach is will find immense joy and sadness deep within her pieces. On Dolmen Music, Monk wavers from being sad to the point of being quite morose (such as the tracks "Gotham Lullaby" and "The Tale") to being happy to the point of hysteria (as on "Traveling" and "Biography") without skipping a beat. Most of the musical accompaniment is minimalist (mainly piano with occasional, sparse percussion, guest vocalists also being prominent on the final six-part track "Dolmen Music"). This minimalist support only furthers Monk's vast vocal language as the prominent focus in the recordings. Listeners will also be very pleased to find that her wonderful voice is not crowded or overshadowed. A true original, Monk's work should be sought by anyone with an interest in vocal exploration."

"Dolmen Music" was released by ECM Records in 1981, then re-released by ECM New Series in 1994.

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Meredith Monk - Do You Be

From Allmusic.com : "This release features song excerpts from various long-form theater pieces, the first four coming from Meredith Monk's theater piece Acts From Under and Above, and these are the most jarring on the record. "Scared Song" features English lyrics, minimal accompaniment, and Monk singing harsh, abrasive "scared" sounds. Very unsettling -- and perhaps that is the intention. "Do You Be," a selection from her opera Vessel, features Monk solo on piano and voice with a shrill, piercing wail. Very satisfying. Additional selections from Vessel appear on Monk's 1992 recording Facing North. With one exception, the remaining tracks come from a Monk/Ping Chong science fiction epic opera called The Games, and these more diverse, more exploratory pieces really make the collection work as a recording. A casual listener unfamiliar with the theater pieces may well be put off by the abrasiveness of the first four tracks, which may unfortunately be enough to deter them from the remainder of the recording. But beyond some questionable programming choices, fans of her work will be delighted to see her continuing development as a recording artist."

"Do You Be" was released by ECM New Series in 1987.

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Meredith Monk - Our Lady Of Late

From Allmusic.com : "Singer, composer, filmmaker, and choreographer Meredith Monk is a pioneer in what is now called "extended vocal technique" and "interdisciplinary performance." Her early musical training included piano, some music theory, voice, and Dalcroze Eurythmics. The vocal arts have been an important part of her family's history: "I'm the fourth-generation singer in my family. I came from an Eastern European Jewish background, with my mom being a professional radio singer and jingle singer."

In 1964, Monk graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied composition with Ruth Lloyd and Glen Mack, voice with Vicki Starr, and vocal and chamber music with Meyer Kupferman; she also participated in opera workshops directed by Paul Ukena and Bessie Schoenberg. Dance was prominent in her studies as well. After college, Monk found herself neglecting her voice until one evening she sat at a piano and began vocalizing without words; she found the voice had "limitless colors and textures."

Between 1965 and 2010 she composed approximately 90 works, the apparent influences of which run the gamut of musical expression. "Bartók was someone I loved as a young woman, and also Stravinsky. And then I'm a person who loves music from the '20s and '30s, and there's a jazz singer that I love named Mildred Bailey." She also credits Janis Joplin and Joni Mitchell for providing her with meaningful examples of expressiveness. For Monk, linking her vocalizing to movement was a natural extension of the performance experience, "...doing the movement was a way of me finding my own territory, so to speak, of finding my own identity."

In 1968 Monk founded The House, a company dedicated to a interdisciplinary performance; ten years later she formed the Meredith Monk Vocal Ensemble to perform her vocal compositions. Most of her recordings are available on the ECM New Series. Monk's feature length film, Book of Days, aired on PBS, has appeared on international film festivals and was chosen for the 1991 Whitney Biennial. Her Atlas: an opera in three parts, which was commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera, The Walker Art Center, and The American Music Theater Festival, premiered in February 1991; a recording was released in January 1994.

A site-specific work, American Archeology #1: Roosevelt Island, was first performed in September 1994, and performances of Volcano Songs (a solo music/theater/dance work) were staged in New York City, the Portland Art Museum in Oregon, and Hancher Auditorium in Iowa City. Monk's 1998 musical theater piece, Magic Frequencies, toured the United States to critical acclaim; described as "a science-fiction chamber opera," this sparsely scored and sophisticated piece reveals Monk's lifelong fascination with, and investigation of, time travel and transformation. Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall was the site of a celebration of 40 years of Monk's performing in 2005. Songs of Ascension, another work with site-specific origins, was written in 2008 and released in 2011.

Monk has received numerous awards, including two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Brandeis Creative Arts Award, three Obies (including an award for Sustained Achievement), two Villager Awards, a Bessie for ASCAP Awards for Musical Composition, and the 1992 Dance Magazine Award. In 1995, Monk won a MacArthur "Genius" Award, and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2006. Her 1991 film, Ellis Island, won the CINE Golden Eagle Award. Alan Kriegsman of the Washington Post, writes, "When the time comes, perhaps a hundred years from now, to tally up achievements in the performing arts during the last third of the [20th] century, one name that seems sure to loom large is that of Meredith Monk. In originality, in scope, in depth, there are few to rival her."

"Our Lady Of Late" was released by Minona Records in 1973, then re-released by Wergo in 1988.

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Jo Truman - Sdreamings

Jo Truman, born Josephine Truman, is an Australian artist.

“Pin prick bursts of female voice, sudden odd harmonies, high pitched bubbles percolating through the ether. It’s a cat’s cradle of vocal sound.” (ARC vol. II)

For those who enjoy the work of Meredith Monk...

"Sdreamings" was commissioned by Horspiel (WDR, Koln, Germany) and it was released by Staalplaat in 1991.

Get it here : Jo Truman - Sdreamings