RARE 1ST PRESSING Meredith Monk KEY 1971 Increase Records Fluxus Related Record
$
25
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Description
"Key"
By Meredith Monk
- An artist soundwork with Fluxus related vocals by Dick Higgins and photography by Peter Moore –
Artist: Meredith Monk Title: KEY; Invisible Theatre Label: INCREASE RECORDS Date: 1971 Format: Vinyl LP Notes: First pressing debut album of Meredith Monk, released in 1971 through Increase Records. All songs written and composed by Meredith Monk. Condition: Minor rubbing to covers, record appears unplayed. 1 Track listing:
Side one No. Title Length 1. "Porch" 2:14 2. "Under Street" 4:18 3. "What Does It Mean?" 3:56 4. "Vision" 1:16 5. "Fat Stream" 7:25 Side two No. Title Length 1. "Vision" 2:02 2. "Do You Be?" 4:11 3. "Vision" 0:35 4. "Chance" 3:44 5. "Dungeon" 6:51
Personnel:
Musicians Lanny Harrison – vocals Dick Higgins – vocals Meredith Monk – vocals, Jew's harp, electronic organ Mark Monstermaker – vocals Daniel Ira Sverdlik – vocals Collin Walcott – Mr?da?ga?, vocals, production
Production Tom Clack – engineering Paul Gruwell – art direction John Horton – engineering, mixing Peter Moore – photography Daniel Nagrin – engineering Peter Pilafian – engineering
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Shipping @ $3.95 anywhere Mainland USA; expedited and insured shipping available. International bidders are welcome but please note that painting will be shipped without the frame to save postage costs.
International Buyers – Please Note: Import duties, taxes and charges are not included in the item price or shipping charges. These charges are the buyer’s responsibility. Please check prior to bidding/buying concerning shipping charges as well as with your country’s customs office to determine what any additional costs will be.”
As a debut, Key is surprisingly representative of Monk’s work as a whole; a lot of its themes and its fundamental, minimalist approach to music can be found in abundance on her other records. The first track begins with a high-pitched wailing that quickly evolves into rambling gibberish; her own personal language that becomes increasingly mellow with time. The listener feels as though he’s witnessing the laments of a mourner even though no background or verbal explanation is presented.
Track 2 introduces an electric organ that accompanies an even less harmonious vocal exercise in which chaotic wailing is mashed with guttural noises for an altogether not-very-pleasant effect. It should be clear by now that Key is far from being a conventional album. On the contrary it is wholeheartedly dedicated to vocal research and the expressing of emotional narratives as well as various states of mind by non-verbal means. In an almost theatrical manner, Monk employs increasingly bizarre vocal gymnastics, natural sounds, footsteps, whispers and echoes with minimal instrumentation in order to evoke certain images within the listener. These fascinating but often exhausting pieces are held together by short intermissions in which two different characters of opposite gender recite bizarre and largely inaudible stories.
The final and ominously titled Dungeon marks a transformation from sorrowful laments and playful vocal quirks into the incantations of a witch that pants, sighs and wails her way through some occult ritual accompanied by African percussion. During the process Monk’s voice changes in radical and oftentimes unpredictable ways which ultimately stand as the greatest testaments to her talent, both as a vocalist and a storyteller.
Overall, Key is largely disharmonious even if gentle and less outrageous tracks like Fat Stream prove themselves as exceptions. The pieces succeed in evoking strangely theatrical images in the listener even if the emotional resonance that defines some of her later albums appears only sporadically at most. As a showcase of Monk’s capabilities as both vocalist, narrator and conjurer, however, it is definitely worth a listen. Pay me securely through PayPal!
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