Robert Ashley “Perfect Lives” [Lovely Music] (CD)

cujo   7/5/2005   A Library, CD

A little ditty bout Raoul and Buddy, two kids in the American Heartland, as epically conceived by underappreciated American media artist Robert Ashley. This post-ONCE, post-Mills 1978 TV opera was commissioned by The Kitchen and premiered in the U.K in 1984. Runs 3 hours in 7 acts on 3 audio CDs. What you can be assured of: a near-constant bed of warm electronic blanketing. Non-stop delirious piano playing by ‘Blue? Gene, often in a boogie-woogie style. Ashley’s non-stop dead-pan sing-song delivery of a novella (really, what else can it be called?) about love, supermarkets, bank robberies, music, nothing, bars, cars, and life in the midwest. This is phenomenal.

-Cujo Jan 2005

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