The Character of American Sunlight

The Character of American Sunlight

Description: 
Back from obscurity
Composers: 
Jerome Kitzke
Performers: 
Lisa Karrer
Guy Klucevsek
Jerome Kitzke
Bradley Lubman
Essential Music
The Mad Coyote
Catalog Number: 
#828
Genre: 
world
new classical
new music
Collection: 
accordion
chamber
solo voice
Location: 

New York City, NY

Price: 
$15.00
Release Date: 
Aug 27, 2013
Liner Notes: 
View
1 CD
The Character of American SunlightiTunes Album Page
Song TitleTimePrice
1.Mad Coyote Madly Sings08:37$0.99
2.A Keening Wish12:27
3.The Animist Child06:45$0.99
4.The Big Gesture14:02
5.Breath and Bone05:19$0.99
6.We Need to Dream All This Again11:16
7.The Character of American Sunlight14:08
One Sheet: 

Some things should never disappear. First released to great acclaim by Koch International Classics in 1999, composer Jerome Kitzke’s wide-ranging and ceaselessly inventive The Character of American Sunlight went out of print in 2007 and innova Recordings is proud to bring it back into the world where it belongs. At once exuberant and carefully crafted, Kitzke’s music on this release amply demonstrates he “has the makings of an American original” (Robert Carl, Fanfare). The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said his music “crackles with rhythmic vitality, brims with big-hearted expression and astounds with daring sonic invention.”

Presented with new artwork and liner notes—including Kyle Gann’s essay “Jerome Kitzke: Bringing Energy Down from the Gods” from the original release and a new intro by Sarah Cahill—The Character of American Sunlight combines voices and instruments, words and notation, in liberating new ways. Drawing on traditions from Native American song to the poetry of Allen Ginsberg, Kitzke makes the new feel familiar while repositioning and repurposing the traditional to be made new again. The result is uniquely—and bracingly—American.

Born in Milwaukee in 1955, Kitzke relocated to New York City in 1984 and has now lived half his life there, composing works that are both political and personal, ranging from the history of the bison in North America to U.S. war actions to the untimely death of a sister.

Reviews: 

“He breathes life into the written note, and that’s to be celebrated.” —Chris Kelsey, Jazz Now

“... [E]very once in a while, someone comes up with a new twist to old tactics. Jerome Kitzke is one of them. He succeeds for the simple reason that he seems unconcerned with the means and process of composing, focused instead on his own personal vision.” —Kenneth Goldsmith, New York Press

JAZZ WEEKLY
"[A] mix of spontaneous creativity and carefully constructed chaos. ... [T]he adventures never end on this one." [FULL ARTICLE]
George W. Harris