Akoka: Reframing Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time
“A shatteringly beautiful performance of Olivier Messiaen’s ‘Quartet for the End of Time.'”
-The Jewish Week
In this reframing of Olivier Messiaen’s masterpiece Quartet for the End of Time, clarinetist David Krakauer — praised internationally for his ability to play in a myriad of music genres with “prodigious chops” (The New Yorker) and “soulfulness and electrifying showiness” (The New York Times) — and musical pioneer cellist Matt Haimovitz — described as “one of the leading cellists of his generation” (The New York Times) and “intensely sensitive and perfectly poised (Gramophone Magazine) — have created a recording and live concert experience of great emotional power.
In a rare live recording, AKOKA bookmarks the complete Messiaen masterwork Quartet for the End of Time between Krakauer’s own Akoka, and Meanwhile… by sound artist Socalled.
The album lifts Messiaen’s original work out of the polite context of a chamber music performance and places it in a dramatic setting that drives home its gravity and impact, while bringing it into the 21st century. As the forces of fundamentalism, intolerance and violence intensify in today’s world, this particular mounting of the great work seems all the more timely.
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David Krakauer
1) AKOKA (5:59)Olivier Messiaen
Quator Pour la Fin du Temps
2) I. Liturgie de cristal (2:48)
3) II. Vocalise, pour l’Ange qui annonce la fin du Temps (5:26)
4) III. Abîme des oiseaux (7:20)
5) IV. Intermède (1:46)
6) V. Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus (8:32)
7) VI. Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes (6:19)
8) VII. Fouillis d’arcs-en-ciel, pour l’Ange qui annonce la fin du Temps (7:25)
9) VIII. Louange à l’Immortalité de Jesus (9:23)Socalled
10) MEANWHILE... (8:47) -
Release Date: February 22, 2014
Label: Oxingale Records (OX2022)
Artist(s): David Krakauer, Matt Haimovitz, Jonathan Crow, Geoffrey Burleson, Socalled
Composer(s): David Krakauer, Olivier Messiaen, Socalled
Recorded live September 8 and 9, 2008, in Montréal Quebec.
This project was developed and created during a residency in the Music & Sound department of The Banff Centre. banffcentre.ca
Produced by Luna Pearl Woolf Recording Engineer: Doyuen Ko Edited by Pascal Shefteshy
Mixed by Richard King
Assisted by Brett Leonard
Mastered by Ryan Morey
Graphic Design: Pointebarre
Project Coordination: Michael KoganPre-recorded tracks for “Meanwhile...” recorded at The Banff Centre, May 22-24, 2007 by
David Krakauer, clarinet
Geoff Nuttall, violin
Matt Haimovitz, cello
Frederic Chiu pianoProduced by Socalled
Edited by Pascal Shefteshy at Wild Sky Studio, Montréal, QuebecPublishing: Track 1: Krakman Music, BMI
Tracks 2-9: Durand
Track 10: Oxingale MusicSpecial thanks to Herschel Segal for his financial support of this project.
Special thanks also to: Kathleen Taag, Sue Bernstein, Martha de Francisco, Pierre Marchand and David Merrill.
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Akoka was inspired by the wartime experience of clarinetist Henri Akoka, who premiered the Quartet for the End of Time with Olivier Messiaen in Stalag VIII A, the German prisoner-of-war camp in which they were both interred.
Henri Akoka's vibrant personality and the story of his survival, with all its twists and turns, is the inspiration for this recording, which, in cellist Matt Haimovitz's words, "brings out the human aspect of this composition seen through the 'eyes' of one individual caught up in terrifying events beyond his control. The Messiaen is bookmarked between two new compositions in a way that lifts it out of the polite confines of a normal chamber music performance."
The album positions the Quartet between two original compositions inspired by Messiaen's famous work: the opening track, "Akoka," conceived by the Klezmer and classical clarinetist David Krakauer, is almost entirely improvised; and the closing track, "Meanwhile: A Messiaen Remix," by the "beat architect" (pianist, composer, arranger, singer, rapper, and more) Socalled (a.k.a. Josh Dolgin), merges live samples of the musicians with old radio broadcasts, hiphop, cantorial singing, and markers of time...