Michael Mantler is an Austrian musician/composer who took part in the US Free Jazz scene in the 60's with the 'Jazz Composer's Orcchestra'. He moved then to Europe where he worked among others with his future wife Carla Bley. In the 70's he started to work on text-settings especially for his favourite authors Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter.
The double CD
'The School Of Understanding' (1996) is his most ambitious vocal work up to today with the ironic subtitle 'Sort-Of-An-Opera'. 'The School Of Understanding' deals with communication in a wider sense, in form of dialogues between society archetypes as : the student, the teacher, the doctor, the businessman, the journalist etc. Mantler wrote all the libretto himself, but the last song where he used a Beckett text.
The vocalists come mainly from the progressive rock and Jazz field : Jack Bruce, Don Preston, Robert Wyatt, John Greaves and his daughter Karen Mantler. The music itself orchestrated for string orchestra, woodwinds, E-guitar and synth drums is influenced by minimal music, the vocal part reminds Schönberg's 'Sprechgesang' (spoken chant). A record, that takes time and concentration to be appreciated.
Edited by Alucard - August 04 2006 at 10:28