Various Artists - Cocktail (Original Soundtrack) - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Anyone performing John Cage's music cannot avoid silence. In all the works performed in this collection, percussionist Matthias Kaul deals with silence and how it can be realized in the most concrete way. Kaul is not only a percussionist, he is also a composer and therefore equipped for such a task. In Variations I, Cage plays with various forms of silence. The score consists of transparent sheets with dots and lines and the performers generates concrete tones, sounds and InchpausesInch. The playing instructions for Inlets are still more rudimentary; there are three performers, each of whom has four conch shells. The shells are filled with water and turned round and round; then a fire fueled by pine cones begins, and the piece ends when one of the shells blown like a horn. In Child of Tree, the performer must toss coins to determine how many sections to divide the eight minutes into and which instruments to use in which sections. For this major project, Kaul used 90 different instruments and objects altogether.

The bora, or boys' initiation ceremonies, of the Aboriginal peoples of Cape York Peninsula in Northeastern Australia were already under threat by outside influence when this recording was made by Wolfgang Laade in 1963 (it was released in 1975). He interviewed tribal elders in the sacred bora ground to document the myth of the crocodile hero on which the bora is based and to describe the ceremonies as they had been performed. Other elders recorded traditional bora songs. The experience is especially heightened by the sounds of work and life permeating throughout.

Some of the biggest names in jazz provide the soundtrack for this ultimate cocktail music collection including Charles Mingus, Louis Armstrong, Django Reinhardt, Glen Miller, Jo Jones, Charlie Byrd and many more. All selections newly remastered.