CURIUM: E.E. CUMMINGS FRIED IN A HARD DRIVE
From John Diliberto
| 00:07:26
Producers: John Diliberto
April is National Poetry Month
CURIUM: E.E. CUMMINGS FRIED IN A HARD DRIVE
A POET GETS DIGITIZED
E.E. Cummings was a poet in word and form, sculpting his verse in graphic designs and synthesist Evan Sorenstein has plugged into this. Under his recording guise as Curium he's made a beguiling recording, setting charming readings of Cummings poetry, read by a 3-year-old girl, an 80-something grandmother and everyone in between. Processed, stretched and distorted, he's set their words in a subtle ambient soundscape on the album Nowever. Curium talks about a poetry and music disc that transcends the form. Kimberly Haas reports.
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Review of CURIUM: E.E. CUMMINGS FRIED IN A HARD DRIVEThis piece is a fairly straightforward report -- it's the subject of the piece that is unusual and experiemental. A producer has friends and family -- aged 3 to 80 -- read EE Cummings poetry and he puts non-melodic music to it. The reporter says most people react to this the way I did; a roll of the eyes, a quick dismissal. But I really liked what this sounded like. The effect of the combination of the overall production -- amateur poetry readers, solidly written poetry, experimental electronic music makes for a fresh sound. For a PD, this piece fits in April's National Poetry month. It's an interesting piece any day of the year, though. |
Broadcast History
Echoes, Feb. 6, 2007
Transcript
Music
:10
NO OFFENCE TO POETS, BUT IF YOU MENTION POETRY TO MOST PEOPLE, THEIR EYES WILL GLAZE OVER. TALK ABOUT POETRY AND MUSIC AND THEY FLEE THE ROOM.
:11
ES: Yeah, I have to completely agree with you there and I actually don?t really even like poetry, so um, I just find too much poetry just to be a formula and just never really resonated with me.
:13
THAT?S EVAN SORENSTEIN. HE RECORDS UNDER THE GUISE OF CURIUM AND IT?S A SURPRISE TO HEAR HIM SAY THAT, BECAUSE HE'S JUST PUT OUT AN ALBUM COMBINING THE POETRY OF EE CUMMINGS AND HIS OWN ELECTRONIC MUSIC.
MUSIC
:06
EE CUMMINGS IS AN EXCEPTION TO EVAN SORENSTEIN'S POETIC AMBIVALENCE.
:27
ES: He?s definitely comes from an era of, of simplicity. I don?t know too much of, of his contemporaries, but there?s sort of a Steinbeck approach to the way he wrote poetry, very sort of haiku. There was no wasted words and the...
Read the full transcript
Timing and Cues
Suggested host intro:
E.E. CUMMINGS WAS A 20TH CENTURY POET KNOWN FOR HIS ELEGANT, SIMPLE, YET ALMOST MYSTICAL POEMS. HE USED ODD CONSTRUCTIONS AND OFTEN EMPLOYED UNUSUAL TYPOGRAPHICAL SETTINGS AS PART OF HIS POEMS. EVAN SORENSTEIN [Sor-en-steen] IS AN ELECTRONIC COMPOSER FROM SAN FRANCISCO WHOSE MUSIC RANGES FROM INDUSTRIAL AND GOTH TO AMBIENT ELECTRONICS. A WHILE BACK HE DECIDED TO SET THE POETRY OF EE CUMMINGS TO MUSIC. UNDER HIS RECORDING NAME, CURIUM, HE TOOK CUMMINGS?S POETRY AND FRIED IT IN HIS HARD DRIVE TO COME UP WITH THE ALBUM, NOWEVER. IT'S DEFINITELY NOT YOUR CONVENTIONAL POETRY ALBUM. KIMBERLY HAAS TRADES SONNETS AND VERSE WITH CURIUM.
Incue: [music] NO OFFENCE TO POETS, BUT IF YOU MENTION ...
Outcue: E.E. CUMMINGS IS DIGITIZED ON "NOWEVER" AN ALBUM BY CURIUM SETTING CUMMINGS'S POETRY TO MUSIC. I'M KIMBERLY HAAS.
Additional Files
- e. e. cummings (cummings.jpg)
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Additional Information
- Produced: Feb 02, 2007
- Added to PRX: Feb 13, 2007
- This piece is in English
Jen Curry
Posted on April 02, 2008 at 09:24 AM | Permalink
Review of CURIUM: E.E. CUMMINGS FRIED IN A HARD DRIVE
happy that someone's doing it (experimenting with electronic-poetry)-- this piece does need a bit of "room cleaner" in the beginning, even though it's obviously a rare? archival recording....
The interviewee says that "poetry (is) a formula that never resonated with me." That's why this electronic artist is soooooooo not-obsessed with words...
for kicks-- e.e. cummings book called "no thanks" put the names of all the publisher's that rejected his poetry into a funeral urn.
I'm interested if there's a recording in the voice of the poet of the more complicated language poems which utilize letters as full words, or sounds as full words...
I think this "ambivalent artist" that's profiled here simplifies the meaning of e.e. cummings' poetry. one poet (can't remember the name) said if I needed music, it'd already be there.
The piece itself is confusing because the artist isn't clear about why he picked e.e. other than he probably doesn't think cummings is a real poet... I felt like the report was distorted, but an interesting topic nonetheless.
and what kind of mic was this interview recorded on? whawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww... .
For the artist, I like the baby voice, because it makes me "x-peckt (hope)"