Demetrio Stratos

*Yellow Vinyl. Gatefold Cover * Of all of Demetrio Stratos' recordings, this 1978 live date with violinist Lucio Fabbri is easily the most accessible and least adventurous. That said, Recitarcantando is also perhaps the most songlike and beautiful of Stratos' albums and deserves recognition for showcasing the vocalist as a singer of uncommon power and originality. This album does showcase various aspects of the investigations undertaken on his previous studio recordings, including the "Investigazioni (Diplophonie & Triplophonie)" from 1974, and the "Mirolonghi," from 1973.

And while these pieces in their studio incarnations, unaccompanied, resembled something otherworldly for their deep resonance as they integrated tonalities, here they represent something else: the ability of the human voice to integrate beyond its naturalistic speaking or singing limits into a purely instrumental acumen as a polytonal instrument producing microphonics in the context of something resembling song. It is haunting, at times disturbing, and always beautiful. This is a seamless integration of two disparate instruments exploring the limits of one another's sonic architecture and rendering them both essentially limitless in the process.