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Nov 21, 2017 Suzanne Ciani By Dustin Krcatovich

The recent resurgence of interest in the work of electronic music pioneer Suzanne Ciani is nothing but a good thing, and the Finders Keepers label has played no small role in getting that work back into circulation. In some cases, in fact, the label is getting recordings in public hands for the first time, such as with Help, Help, The Globolinks!, an EP which finds Ciani reimagining a section of Gian Carlo Menotti’s 1960s children’s opera. These recordings never saw the light of day in their time, outside of a spate of 1980 live performances in New York high school theaters, making it quite a revelatory find for Ciani devotees.

The two pieces here have more to offer beyond the basic archival interest, too. The overall vibe is a bit aesthetically removed from much of Ciani’s catalogue, bearing more in common with the work of fellow Buchla master Morton Subotnick than with the melodic, organic feel of her most revered work. This is all well and good, as Ciani had the technical mastery and vision to do this kind of thing well, but fans of more commercial works like Seven Waves might not be as drawn to it.

As I understand it, one of the central thematic concerns of Help, Help, The Globolinks! was that the use of electronic sound in music, relatively new when the opera was originally written, was dehumanizing, and endangered the ancient beauty of “the old ways.” Menotti surely must be spinning in his grave, then, knowing that Ciani’s brief contribution to his work, which in his mind was intended as something alienating (in fact, it was literally used as the soundtrack to an alien invasion by the Globolinks of the title), is being given a chance to endure, even as his opera fades to the recesses of collective memory. (www.finderskeepersrecords.com)

Author rating: 6.5/10