Customer Reviews

Dolmen Music

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This CD includes one of Monk's few "songs" (with lyrics) -- "The Tale" -- which is a quirky, funny little piece -- and the 20 min title track, which was also titled at one point "Stonehenge," I gather. Both of these are extremely strong cuts and worth listening to. My favorite Monk CD is BOOK OF DAYS, also transplanting us to some imaginary past; my second favorite is FACING NORTH, which, recorded in Banff, explores the feel of the arctic. Third on the list is DOLMEN MUSIC. Only serious devotees need proceed further, though DO YOU BE has some good moments, too (but is out-of-print, I think).

To quote Meredith Monk: "The voice is a language, a world of continuing discoveries." She uses her voice to sing, moan, yodel, squeal, whisper and gurgle, at the same time conjuring up a panoply of characters, from elderly women and precocious children to shrieking ghosts and chanting priests. With the exception of The Tale, she does this on Dolmen Music without words, restricting herself to swooping vocalisation, inventive phonemes and ritualistic incantations. The Tale starts off with a child's weird laughter and vocal contortions and then proceeds into some weird lyrics over shattering glass and car horns. The long piece Dolmen Music that concludes the album, sounds very gothic and medieval with interweaving male and female voices. There is very little to compare Monk's work with - perhaps the closest would be some of the works of Diamanda Galas or Tibetan overtone chanting. All in all, a very unusual album that takes to human voice to places it's never been before.

I just can't get this album out of my head. It's pretty incredible. I didn't even know human voics could make some of the sounds that you hear on this.

First of all, if you're reading this I imagine you're already familiar with Monk. She's not exactly "mainstream," so why else would you be here reading this? Approach this and other Monk albums with an open mind; Meredith Monk is the musical equivalent of abstract expressionism, so if you're expecting something that resembles any preconceived notions of what music traditionally is, forget it! This takes the art to a whole new level. But this is truly a haunting album. I have portions of track five stuck in my head.

This music is weird stuff, unusual singing and music. Its nice that way. Some of the songs can make me laugh since they sound funny and playful, and then some sound very sad and deeply moving. It took me a while to like this music since at first it sounded so weird. Now I can see that it is great music and that I was just not used to this. Its probably better than anything on the radio in fact.

Of everything Ms. Monk has recorded, this is to my opinion the very best. Despite all the emphasis on Dolmen Music, don't forget about the other four songs on the album, they're precious! Musically truly amazing and - yes - spiritually moving, the title track can be best decribed as a form of musical archaeology, gradually uncovering some sort of future community. This might sound vague, and the association might be entirely personal, being both a musician and an archaeologist myself. But listen to this incredible work of art, and you will never listen to the human voice in the same way again.

I have owned this on vinyl for over twenty years. I love this collection of songs, from "Lullaby" to the "Wa Ohs" to the "Men's Conclave", it's all so seamless and intertwined.