Alvin Curran – Solo Works: The '70s [3CD]

"This historic collection gathers together the four seminal solo albums recorded by Alvin Curran (b 1938) in the 1970s. Two, Fiori Chiari Fiori Oscuri (Light Flowers Dark Flowers) and The Works, are making their first appearance on CD.

Author/critic Tim Page, an early advocate of these works, writes, “Curran weaves electronic technology, an occasional acoustic instrument, voices and musique concrète (“found” music) into a multi-hued tapestry of sound. He holds these dissimilar elements together with a compelling subliminal musical consciousness; the listener never feels that Curran is deliberately being clever, or that he is out to impress, shock or self-consciously ‘expand the musical language.’

Curran’s eclecticism is not willful; his sounds are there because they fit, and they convey a subtle and ingratiating sense of mysticism. These challenging, multi-faceted compositions manage, through their very catholicity, to synthesize and perfect a striking new musical syntax uniquely Curran’s own.”

New World Records, 2010