Chimeras (album)

Chimeras (sub-titled A Child’s Adventures in the Realms of the Unreal) is an album of contemporary classical music by American composer John Zorn featuring a 12 part piece inspired by Arnold Schoenberg's atonal composition "Pierrot Lunaire".[1] In 2010 the album was revised and re-recorded, with an additional "Postlude".[2]

Chimeras
Studio album by
ReleasedApril 22, 2003
RecordedJanuary 3 & 4, 2003, SUNY Purchase, New York
"Postlude" recorded July 8, 2009, Jordan Hall, Boston
GenreAvant-garde, contemporary classical music
Length33:44
LabelTzadik TZ 7085
ProducerJohn Zorn
John Zorn chronology
Voices in the Wilderness
(2003)
Chimeras
(2003)
The Unknown Masada
(2003)
2010 Reissue

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[3]
Pitchfork Media[4]
Free Jazz Collective[5]

The Allmusic site awarded the album 3½ stars.[3] Writing for Pitchfork Media, Alexander Lloyd Linhardt stated "the piece itself is thrillingly diverse, suddenly going from luminous to lugubrious and from classical to chaotic. It's a bold, unexpected new chapter in Zorn's corpus, or it would be if we didn't expect that from him".[4] The Free Jazz Collective stated "it can be described as an absolute musical nightmare. It is dark, frightening, with light touches beaming through, like a lullaby arising out of violence, like a tiny light in the darkness giving you false hope of rescue, like friendly faces turning into gargoyles. Human warmth is present, but only as a delusion or deception... The music is as ambitious as it is pretentious, although it will not leave you indifferent".[5]

Track listing

All compositions by John Zorn

  1. "One" – 0:55
  2. "Two" – 2:42
  3. "Three" – 2:54
  4. "Four" – 2:05
  5. "Five" – 1:45
  6. "Six" – 2:08
  7. "Seven" – 4:38
  8. "Eight" – 3:19
  9. "Nine" – 2:45
  10. "Ten" – 2:53
  11. "Interlude" – 1:24 Track 4 on 2010 reissue
  12. "Eleven" – 3:18
  13. "Twelve" – 2:50
  14. "Postlude" - 0:16 Bonus track on 2010 reissue

Personnel

References

  1. Tzadik catalogue
  2. Tzadik catalogue
  3. Allmusic Review accessed October 31, 2013.
  4. Linhardt, A. L. Pitchfork Media review September 8, 2003
  5. Stef, The Free Jazz Collective Review, Free Jazz Collective, April 21, 2010
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