Is there any better way to celebrate 84 years on planet Earth than to release a collection of avant-garde music lovingly recorded over a span of three decades? It must certainly rank up there.
Simone Forti does not make music for a living. She's expressed her artistry mainly in the fields of postmodern art, dance, choreography and writing. Her career dates back to the 1950s; we don't often associate experimentation with that rather conservative time, but Forti was part of an international creative class that broke rules and opened doors for the counter-culture that would follow a decade later.
In 1961, Forti's Dance Constructions solidified her leadership in postmodern dance. Around the same time, she helped build the Fluxus movement, an international community of like-minded artists in a variety of disciplines. She has performed and taught at the world's great museums and galleries and collaborated with a long list of artists that includes La Monte Young and Z'EV.
This collection of nine pieces spans those heady days of the early '60s through the Reagan years. Her passion for unconventionality is absolutely joyful. She coughs through a vocal on "Censor." She vacuums the appropriately titled "Bottom." She storms her way through "Thunder Makers." She catches a bus on "Night Walk."
In addition to all that, we get folk songs, handmade instruments and a rare guest appearance by the aforementioned Young. Don't be surprised if you find yourself wishing she was your grandmother.
(Saltern)Simone Forti does not make music for a living. She's expressed her artistry mainly in the fields of postmodern art, dance, choreography and writing. Her career dates back to the 1950s; we don't often associate experimentation with that rather conservative time, but Forti was part of an international creative class that broke rules and opened doors for the counter-culture that would follow a decade later.
In 1961, Forti's Dance Constructions solidified her leadership in postmodern dance. Around the same time, she helped build the Fluxus movement, an international community of like-minded artists in a variety of disciplines. She has performed and taught at the world's great museums and galleries and collaborated with a long list of artists that includes La Monte Young and Z'EV.
This collection of nine pieces spans those heady days of the early '60s through the Reagan years. Her passion for unconventionality is absolutely joyful. She coughs through a vocal on "Censor." She vacuums the appropriately titled "Bottom." She storms her way through "Thunder Makers." She catches a bus on "Night Walk."
In addition to all that, we get folk songs, handmade instruments and a rare guest appearance by the aforementioned Young. Don't be surprised if you find yourself wishing she was your grandmother.