Teitelbaum, Richard

Golem

Label: Tzadik Country: USA

"Composer/improviser Richard Teitelbaum has been acknowledged as a pioneer in electronic music for over three decades, combining electronics with classical forms, jazz improvisation, and world music. With Frederic Rzewski and Alvin Curran, he was a founder of Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV). He has since performed and recorded extensively, as a soloist and with jazz and classical masters including Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, Carlos Zingaro, Fred Frith, Derek Bailey and Lee Konitz for labels including Wergo, Hat Art, Centaur, Victo, Moers Music, Polydor and Arista. Teitelbaum, always on the edge in musical technology, introduced the Moog synthesizer to Europe in the '60s, and in more recent years has pioneered musical work with interactive computer systems. Teitelbaum is not just an experimenter, but a virtuousic and expressive musician of the highest caliber. Golem, many years in the making, is a compositional landmark for Teitelbaum.

Based on the mystical legend, Golem is a metaphor for the mysteries of Creation, the dangers of magic and technology, the challenges of cybernetics and artificial intelligence, and even the problems of racism, violence and oppression. A multi-dimensional, multi-media "interactive opera," Golem has been described as a "dazzling labyrinth of live music with interactive computers, spinning off the theme of a soulless life-force and the threat of technology taking over in the age of virtual reality..."-Tzadik