Album Details

• Artist: Moe Staiano
• Album: 2 Rooms Of Uranium In 83 Markers: Conducted Improvisations Vol.ii
• Label: Edgetone
• Year of Release: 2007
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2007-08-23

This set of two live improvised percussion driven mayhem by composer and upstanding Dadaist Staiano features one short piece, "Depleted Uranium," and the more ambitious, six part "Piece No.11: Two Orchestras in Separate Rooms." The latter piece’s title is quite literal: basically two large bands are set up in adjoining rooms, and riff off and to each other. Given the amount of players, and all the horns, percussion, guitars, turntables and accordion, this could have been one loud brassy cacophony. Instead, it is a heady example of a crowd of players hearing each other, and all kicking in lines to fatten the groove.

The performances were recorded at the former Oakland Box Theater, and the audiences, by wandering from room to room, could experience and participate in the action. The show was part of a fundraiser to draw attention to the uranium used in weaponry by the US in Iraq. The music itself isn’t very martial, nor is it somber. It is a complex rhythmic improv by musicians who happen to have war on their mind at the time.

User Reviews and Comments