A work made from selected samples of the recorded history of Angelica 1991-2001. Source materials include Shelley Hirsch, Butch Morriss, Phil Minton, John Zorn, Maggy Nichols, Catherine Janiaux, Jon Rose, Bob Ostertag, Otomo Yoshihde, Chris Cutler, Heiner Goebbels, Veryan Weston, &c, &c...
"Alvin CurranÕs reputation precedes him as one of the most forward-thinking composers in modern music. TOTO ANGELICA stylistically follows in the wake of his Tzadik release(ÒAnimal BehaviorÓ) , to the extent that a plethora of alienated, musical sounds become a single piece of music when altered and thoughtfully mixed together. During his Angelica Festival performance (which was the impetus for this recording), his computer crashed and, by beans of a pre-recorded phoneme voice, uttered the syllables, ÓItsÕs not my fault. Please make sure the Apple Talking Network is connectedÓ. This happy accident inspired Curran to re-evaluate both our penchant to so strongly rely on technology, and the propitious results when such technology leads the artist into unexplored and unimagined territories by reason of necessity. From this standpoint, the composer examined the entire recordings from all 10 past Angelica Festivals from 1991 to 2001, and set about to mix disparate but somehow complimentary performances together to create a new work. These are otherwise impossible combinations: Fred Frith plays with 2 Eskimo women. Pavarotti plays with Mike Patton, etc. that logically should not work. But as the world becomes smaller and smaller by means of technology, by design, these instances certainly do. The outcome, while certainly intense, is by no means a nod to the world of lazily thrown together noises or shock-tactic-shivarees; Instead, CurranÕs penchant to carefully consider all of the elements at his disposal left him with a full palette of possibilities for excellence and innovation."-ReR USA