Viv Corringham, Peter Cusack
OPERET

	1. Half Live mp3 2. Stojan Na Stanka 3. My heart's In Motian 4. Operet 5. Jenny McNeilly 6. Hasretim Yavrums 7. Intro (Holloway Road) 8. Holloway Road
order	rere 121 CD 2001 49'34

Viv Corringham has performed and recorded internationally since the early '80s. She explores the place where improvisation and electronics can meet Eastern Mediterranean music. Collaborators include Lol Coxhill, Lawrence Casserley, Martin Tetreault, Eddie Prevost and many others. She is based in London where she leads the group SHIMAL who reinterpret traditional Turkic music in the light of contemporary urban experience.
Peter Cusack has long been fascinated by wildlife and enviromental sounds, and his pieces currently explore that rich area where musical abstraction and identifiable sound can freely interact. Very active in elctroacoustic and improvised musics he tours and broadcasts regulary at home and abroad. Musical collaborators include Clive Bell, Nick Collins, Alteration, Chris Cutler and Max Eastley.
OPERET includs seven beautiful songs. All of them have universal human emotions and strong melodies. They are heavely arranged, not "authentic" and have layers of texture-sounds of London and the enviroment, snatches of the original song, live instruments. It's not a detached, post-modernist deconstruction ! It's trying to take people on a journey where what we hear right here and now is as valid as the song...

"Operet", a collaboration between Eastern Mediterranean singer Viv Corringham and experimental guitarist Peter Cusack, is one of those very few gems that blend songwriting, traditional music, and avant-garde -- the closest comparison in terms of approach would be the early 1980s Japanese group After Dinner. Corringham¹s deep mezzo voice, similar to Jewish singer Chava Alberstein, graces the seven songs included here. Cusack¹s work is split in two: inspired but straight guitar and bouzouki playing, laying down strummed chords or leading Arabic-sounding lines on one side, heavy electronic treatments on the other. The electronic work includes live sampling, various digital enhancements, and the inclusion of environmental recordings of London and snippets from more traditional recordings of some of the songs. Three of them come from Macedonian, Azerbaijan and Turkish folklore. Singer and guitarist are supported by few but impressive musicians: London free improv¹s in-demand bassist John Edwards, laying down some delicate work, soprano saxophonist Tom Chant, and Sukhdeep Singh on tabla (he plays a mean solo on "My Heart¹s in Motion". The electronic and acoustic aspects of the album come together nicely, the former tying up the latter without killing its spirit. "Operet" feels like a phantasized journey. The listener dreams awaken of Eastern Mediterranean villages, but he is still sitting in a London (or any other big city) apartment: street sounds keep cutting in, disturbing the force -- some of them you won¹t know if they actually come from your speakers or your windows until you listened to "Operet" a few times. Strongly recommended to fans of intelligent avant-pop (Anna Homler, Iva Bittova, Haco, etc.).
François Couture, All-Music Guide