'io: the fat albert concert'
ele008
Inspired by the surveillance blimp named Fat Albert tethered to Cudjoe Key to monitor the Florida Straits and Cuba on behalf of the U.S. Information Agency, 'Io: The Fat Albert Concert' is a hypnotic document of this live performance featuring composer David Font on percussion and electronics, Alfredo Triff on electric violin, and Quint Lange on percussion. This limited edition follow-up to 'Io: Little Haiti Suite' is packaged in a transparent jewel case and transparent inserts with artwork by Lebo.
Radio signals drift over the ocean and transform into subdued rhythmic vamps, urban percussion workouts, and a futuristic communion between the ocean, binary electronic systems, drums, and a violin. Synthesized, ancient classical music traditions and high-tech digital experiments form a natural musical vocabulary, a soundtrack for the environment the Fat Albert blimp surveys. It is not rhythm, melody, or harmony that gives shape to music, but sound: acoustic, synthetic or sampled. Sifting through these sounds, the listener finds layer upon layer of meaning, moving from abstract, ambient meditations to elaborate rhythmic and melodic arrangements.
Violinist Triff, whose credits span a broad artistic range from Cuban charanga to avant-garde experiments, weaves melody and rhythm seamlessly with expressive stabs and delicate acoustic effects. His debut album on the American Clave label, '21 Broken Melodies', has garnered international praise from critics and fans, and his recent live performance, 'Boleros Perdidos', was called a 'triumph . . . a musical spellbinder'. Quint Lange, an alumnus of Nigerian drum legend Babatunde Olatunji's Drums of Passion and a resident of the Florida Keys with a 24-7 view of Fat Albert, elegantly works percussive melodies and counterpoint into the soundscape of the piece.
The Fat Albert Concert was performed live at ps 742 in Miami as part of the 14th Subtropics New Music Festival on March 8 & 9, 2002 in quadraphonic (four-channel) surround sound with full-screen video projection. The concert was mixed down to stereo by David Font from an eight-track digital recording engineered by Gustavo Matamoros and an ambient recording by Steve Malagodi.
The Musicians:
Quint Lange: percussion
Alfredo Triff: violin.
David Font: percussion, winds, and electronics.
Three tracks.
Total time: 19' 25"
