Pritsker, Gene

Varieties of Religious Experience Suite

Label: Innova Country: USA

"Sound Liberation is an eclectic hip-hop/chamber/jazz/rock/etc. ensemble committed to "ending the segregation of sound vibration." Their latest album continues the long tradition of composers creating suites out of their operas (in this case Pritsker's "William James: Varieties of Religious Experience," hence the "VRE Suite"). Scored for a quintet version of Sound Liberation: cello, two electric guitars, contrabass and drum set, this album is instrumentally focused, in contrast to their previous albums that included various singers and rappers, and the music is influenced by jazz, contemporary classical music, improvisation, minimalism, hip-hop, and African rhythms.

Composer/guitarist/rapper Gene Pritsker has written over three hundred seventy compositions, including chamber operas, orchestral and chamber works, electro-acoustic music, songs for hip-hop and rock ensembles. His compositions employ an eclectic spectrum of styles and are influenced by his studies of various musical cultures. Gene's music has been performed all over the world at various festivals and by many ensembles and performers, including the Adelaide Symphony, The Athens Camarata, and Brooklyn and Berlin philharmonics. He has worked closely with Joe Zawinul (orchestrating a full album of his music for The Absolute Ensemble on Intuition Records) and has orchestrated major Hollywood movies.

The New York Times described him as "...audacious...multitalented." Joseph Pehrson, writing in The Music Connoisseur, described Pritsker as "dissolv[ing] the artificial boundaries between high brow, low brow, classical, popular musics and elevates the idea that if it's done well it is great music, regardless of the style or genre". Organizations he is associated with include Composers' Concordance, Absolute Ensemble, and The International Street Cannibals."-Innova