Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography

GORMENGHAST

Irmin Schmidt

Prog Related


From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Irmin Schmidt Gormenghast album cover
3.95 | 2 ratings | 1 reviews | 0% 5 stars

Write a review

Buy IRMIN SCHMIDT Music
from Progarchives.com partners
Studio Album, released in 2000

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Overture (0:54)
2. Gertrude's Aria: Touch (9:23)
3. Swelter's Aria: Be a Happy Carnivore! (6:15)
4. Steerpike's Song: Oxygen (7:01)
5. Fuchsia's Song: Rainbow Party (6:52)
6. Ensemble: Joy (3:23)
7. The Twin's Duet: Triumph (3:07)
8. Barquentine's Aria: Possess Me, Chaos! (2:14)
9. Sepulchrave's Aria: Behold the Night! (9:44)
10. Duet Fuchsia & Steerpike: The Birds Are Leaving for the South (6:45)
11. Fuchsia's Aria: Fall, Friendly Rain (5:48)

Total Time 61:26

Line-up / Musicians

- Irmin Schmidt / keyboards
- Brandenburger Symphoniker conducted by Irmin Schmidt / orchestra
- Boys Choir Hampstead School / choir
- Michael Karoli / guitar
- Matthias Lorenz / cello
- Jaki Liebezeit / percussion
- Jessica Wynne / voice
- Danielle Grima / vocals (2)
- Florian Simson / vocals (3)
- Stefan Vinzberg / vocals (4,6,10)
- Claudia Visca / vocals (5,6,10,11)
- Reiner Beinghaus / vocals (6)
- Elise Kaufman / vocals (6,7)
- Sabine Schnitzer / vocals (6,7)
- Ulrich Wewelsiep / vocals (8)
- Mark Morouse / vocals (9)

Thanks to Lewian for the addition
and to projeKct for the last updates
Edit this entry

Buy IRMIN SCHMIDT Gormenghast Music



IRMIN SCHMIDT Gormenghast ratings distribution


3.95
(2 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of rock music(0%)
0%
Excellent addition to any rock music collection(50%)
50%
Good, but non-essential (50%)
50%
Collectors/fans only (0%)
0%
Poor. Only for completionists (0%)
0%

IRMIN SCHMIDT Gormenghast reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Lewian
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars Gormenghast is an opera that was commissioned by the Wuppertaler Bühnen, and premiered at Opera House Wuppertal in 1998. The music was composed by Irmin Schmidt, the libretto was written by Duncan Fallowell. A lot of information is on the opera's website gormenghastopera.com, where we can also read that it combines "romance, comedy and futurism into an adventure of epic strangeness peopled by unforgettable characters." As I am fairly exclusively interested in the music and not so much in the story (which is not necessarily the story's fault), I won't comment more on that.

Ex-Can keyboarder Irmin Schmidt is a studied conductor and composer, and I'm actually surprised that this is the only work of this kind he did. This one combines classically composed orchestra parts and opera singing with modern elements. Apart from conducting the orchestra, Irmin himself her mainly shows his electronic side. There is hardly any piano, but some of the sound harks back to his electronic Toy Planet album. Electronic percussion, informed by the sampling technology of the day, also is a strong element here. There are contributions of Can's Jaki Liebezeit and Michael Karoli, but it's not much, and even hard to pin down. It's really vocals, electronics, and orchestra in the first place. Whereas I like the creativity of the rhythm programming, it comes over as a bit robotic (it features about half of the run time), and I wouldn't have complained about more Jaki, but here we go. There are some hints at the use of electronic rhythms in his following works with Kumo.

You may think about opera style singing whatever you want, but I think the combination with Irmin's electronic sounds works quite well here. Irmin certainly knows what he is doing, and he is in a rather unique position to come up with something like a "rock and classic synthesis", which has of course also been tried out by other prog musicians, and is something that some prog listeners appreciate well. The composition level here is high and goes well beyond the 19th century aesthetic that characterises some such work. Also Irmin can put together a well working melody, and does this, let's say, occasionally also here.

This album is no exception from Irmin's tendency to cite himself; the 1991 Impossible Holidays album had as closing track already something like a pre-overture to this one, and there is the Toy Planet connection, but by and large this is a unique work not only in his catalogue. It is hard to rate this for a prog rock site. As an opera with quickly changing themes it is for sure not easy listening, and it would be interesting to have an opera buff's opinion on this, but I will say that I'm satisfied enough with it for four stars, and I can imagine quite a number of prog fans open for this kind of experiment who will appreciate this.

Latest members reviews

No review or rating for the moment | Submit a review

Post a review of IRMIN SCHMIDT "Gormenghast"

You must be a forum member to post a review, please register here if you are not.

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.