A protégé of new music pioneer La Monte Young, composer-pianist Michael Harrison has developed one the most distinctive voices of our time, informed by his study of North Indian classical ragas and Middle Eastern rhythms. In Revelation (2001), his hypnotic seventy-minute work for solo piano, he employs the principles of harmonic resonance and just intonation to forge a remarkable new sound for the instrument, based on unfamiliar tunings and scales. Live performances of this strangely beautiful work have been praised for delivering 'heaping doses of old-fashioned, jaw-dropping virtuosity' (Los Angeles Times) and for generating 'pulsating shimmering walls of sound. - The Wire
"Revelation is a caressing, cataclysmic, monumentally over-the-top ode...a sonic bomb...you might think all the bells of the Vatican have entered your skull...by the hallucinatory end, it's all stars and rainbows."
-Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times
"Revelation shows a broad range of Harrison's unique and highly developed musical personality."
-Philip Glass, composer
"Revelation should prove to be one of the most influential piano compositions of the 21st century."
-Frank J. Oteri, Editor of American Music Center's NewMusicBox.org
"Harrison is bound to profoundly influence the musicians of his generation."
-Terry Riley, composer
"An inventive composer whose works contain echoes of contemporary and Oriental music all in the service of an engaging melodic gift."
-John Schaefer, New Sounds, WNYC |