PERFORMING WITH PATTON

Georges-Elie Octors reflecting on Laborintus and working with Mike Patton

An artist keenly attuned to the challenges of his time, composer Luciano Berio—as a music professor at Mills College in California and The Juilliard School in New York, as well as founder of a musical “laboratory” in Florence, Italy--offered musicians the opportunity to come into contact with new styles, genres and, above all, different musical activities. He also made an impressive and rarely equaled contribution to the invention of the "open work," giving performers more responsibility and room for interpretation and creativity. In Laborintus II, Berio created a magnificent work that was supremely inspiring for participants. He seized upon the most distinctive aspect of the musical approach and invented a "musical language" that nudged musicians, singers and actors towards the fertile pastures of uncharted territories.

Now, nearly 50 years later, the idea of removing barriers between various styles is no longer outrageous: many contemporary musicians have a "natural" flair for the multidisciplinary approach and are perfectly comfortable with the intermingling so characteristic of the early 21st century. Yet Berio's work is still regarded as meaningful, maybe more so than ever before! His open-minded attitude still prompts us to take a fresh look at his achievements and adapt them to new patterns.

In this performance of Laborintus II, the decision to offer the role of narrator to Mike Patton, who hails from a world strongly identified with alternative rock, was an opportunity to stretch the singer’s integrative and metamorphic prowess. In human and artistic terms, my encounter with Mike in the context of this production has been most stimulating. We enjoyed an exemplary form of artistic cooperation, starting from the first rehearsals and discussions about how to interpret the text. The startling range of Patton’s vocal abilities—from mesmerizing whispers to existential screams—added another level of fire and passion to Berio’s work. More recently, Mike's discerning musical insights proved invaluable when he lent his ear to the first mixes of this recording. He offered us the benefits of his experience and advice from start to finish, and added new depth to this work by unleashing the remarkable instrument of his famous “pipes.”

MEMORY BOX

...everybody knows the little machine that goes KKKKKKKKRRRRRRRR....