Rainforest

When you listen to recordings from the early days of live electronics, the lo-fidelity sound manages to capture a nearly audible buzz of excitement, probably fueled by the unpredictability of soldered wires and homemade circuitry. With David Tudor and Gordon Mumma at the helm of their little black boxes, you never quite know what to expect. As pioneers of the genre, both composers have created work for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and this CD documents Tudor’s seminal Rainforest in a live 1968 dance performance in Brazil. Close your eyes and imagine Andy Warhol’s helium-filled Mylar “Silver Clouds” pillows hovering on stage, intermingling with inscrutably choreographed movement—what a spectacle it must have been. Tudor creates a backdrop of humming drones punctuated by primordial car alarms while tropical birds seethe underneath the volatile electrical current. Luckly, New World Records let’s us hear exactly how things tuned out.

—RN