Kaddish

Towering Inferno | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 16, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Island Red / Pgd
• ASIN: B000005HQJ
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #202,061 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Rose

2. Prayer

3. Dachau

4. 4 by 2

5. Edvárd Király

6. Memory

7. Not Me

8. Reverse Field

9. Occupation

10. Sto Mondo Rotondo

11. Organ Loop

12. Toll [I]

13. Toll [II]

14. The Run

15. Juden

16. Pogrom

17. Partisans

18. Modern Times

19. The Rose

20. The Bell

See all 22 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Making Art of History, March 5, 2005

By 

Robert Carlberg (Seattle) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Kaddish (Audio CD)

The ostensible subject matter of "Kaddish" -- the Holocaust -- is in fact just the building material with which this collage was constructed. It is not so much ABOUT the Holocaust as it is an auditory artwork which stands alone. It helps of course to appreciate the gravity of some of the source material, but I don't agree with Amazon's contention that a libretto would be advantageous. Quite the opposite, I think it would limit the listeners' interpretations.

Wolfson (R.I.P.) and Saunders utilize several styles of music (rock, jazz, liturgical, folk, deep space electronics) as well as recordings of Nazi and Jewish speakers, crowd noises and various other sounds. The term "collage" isn't really appropriate I guess, because "Kaddish" is arranged into a series of musical vignettes, many with no sound effects over the top at all. It is this wide-ranging, unclassifiable character which makes "Kaddish" so difficult to pigeonhole, or summarize, or remember clearly. It is also what makes it endlessly fascinating.

East-German composer Georg Katzer made a collage in 1983 entitled "Aide Memoire" which contrasted Hitler's speeches and Reichstag rhetoric with Jewish folk music and popular music of the 1930s. "Kaddish" can be seen as the more-musical stepchild of that work -- more subtle perhaps, but no less powerful for that.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Woefully Neglected Work of Art, February 28, 2010

By 

Bradley L. Vandeventer (Anaheim, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kaddish (Audio CD)

The British duo of Richard Wolfson and Andy Saunders (along with a cast of supporting chamber musicians and international vocalists) unleashed this cavalcade of dynamics in 1996, accompanying it on live shows with an arresting video montage of Nazi rally and Holocaust footage. This seamless juxtaposition of disparate elements (metal, jazz, classical, electronica, industrial, tone poems, folk song) makes for an unforgettable listen. An inkling of WWII knowledge will make it haunt your thoughts forever. With so many culminating points, it's hard to determine what the real, intended crescendo is--assuming Wolfson and Saunders intended for one. I would say the marching, industrial beat of "Modern Times" would be it, but someone else might choose the ire of Hungarian poet Endre Szkarosi on "Edvard Kiraly", or Marta Sabestyen's ominous vocalizing on "The Bell". It could just as easily be the synth-drenched, pummeling "Occupation", or the understated string quintets on "Dachau" or "The Ruin". Brian Eno himself considered it the most frightening album he had ever heard; when not frightening, "Kaddish" is in turn sleek, solemn, and sorrowful. But always beautiful. A stunning aural achievement that has gone unheralded for way too long.