BRIDGE Partch: Bitter Music Vol.1

This long-lost journal of Harry Partch's wanderings during the Great Depression (from cleaning sewers to having tea with Irish poet W. B. Yeats) is an extraordinary musical portrait of an American pioneer, chronicling his occasionally hilarious and often heartbreaking struggles to forge a new music system outside the classical tradition. This premiere recording of Bitter Music takes the form of readings and collected musical fragments- an aural diary of what was going through Partch's mind and ear during a critical period in his artistic development. Review 'This immaculately produced three-disc set isn't quite a collection of music, although there's music woven into it, nor is it quite an audiobook, although spoken narrative forms the backbone of the work. In essence, it's more like a conveniently canned radio docu-drama, and a highly successful one at that... Both musical and narrative performances are expertly and evocatively executed.' --International Record Review, June '12