Squonk Opera
Bigsmörgåsbørdwünderwerk
Angel Records

This month my notable mention goes to Pittsburgh's Squonk Opera. Squonk Opera's [post, post] modern opera Bigsmörgåsbørdwünderwerk is a hypnotic hallucination into some sort of reality and a post-modern mixture of minimalism, Kurt Weil, and the multi-dimensional ethnic voices that go beyond known boundaries of heretofore operatic experiences.

Pittsburgh's Squonk Opera is the creative collaboration between Jackie Dempsey and Steve O'Hearn. Musically joined by vocalist Jana Losey, bassist T. Weldeon Anderson and percussionist Kevin Kornicki the five have created an eclectic group that ventures into the popular aspects of the thematic opera creating "opera for the people, by the people, and of the people!" This album is the recording "ghost" from the stage presentation of the work in New York and even though the visual aspect is missing (as with all recordings) the music is a delightful conglomeration of diverse elements into a whole that is excitingly new and unexpectedly irreverent. Minimalist elements mingle and make love to ethnic sounds and ethereal vocals while various instruments and sounds make guest appearances and run into the corridors of emotion and logic in opposite and unforeseen yet agreeable directions.

In vino veritas and in Bigsmörgåsbørdwünderwerk aural/emotional/intellectual satisfaction.

Copyright © 2001 Stavros Moschopoulos