With The Urmuz Epigrams Zorn returns to his roots, using the recording studio as instrument to create an intensely personal suite of compositions in the style of his legendary File Card compositions and Zoetropes. Dedicated to the visionary Romanian writer Urmuz whose small, scattered body of work predated Dadaism by decades, The Urmuz Epigrams is a suite of surrealistic miniatures more akin to philosophical aphorisms than actual music. The pieces are presented here in two iterations, as a set of “rare 78rpm records” complete with surface scratches and limited dynamic range, and as a modern reconstruction of same with the full blown studio sound presented in all its perplexing glory. Some of the craziest music in the Zorn catalog!
Modern Reconstructions
1. Disgusted with Life
2. This Piano Lid Serves as a Wall
3. With Wet Clothes and Disheveled Hair He Wandered in the Dead of Night in Search of Shelter
4. Then Again, Who Amongst us can Complain
5. A Rain of Threats and Screams
6. The Pelican or the Pelicaness
7. After That the Funnel Became a Symbol
8. Desperate from Having Been Left without a Bladder
Original versions, privately pressed on the Romanian Pahuciphone label circa 1923
