March 19, 2008
Fear and Loathing: The Music of Phil Kline
Kimmel Center Presents’ Fresh Ink Series final performance takes place on April 5 with a performance of Fear & Loathing: The Music of Phil Kline. Listen to the next Kimmelcast in the Fresh Ink Series for a conversation with composer-guitarist Phil Kline, as well as music from the program. You can also subscribe via iTunes.
Kline’s imaginative works delve into the American psyche and have been lauded by the New York Times as “brilliant American lieder for the 21st century.” His most recent song cycle, Fear and Loathing, was inspired by the hallucinatory works of American author and “gonzo journalist” Hunter S. Thompson. Also part of the program is the rock-influenced work, Zippo Songs, based on the poems by American GIs inscribed on Zippo lighters during the Vietnam War.
These inscriptions contain a world of emotion that spoke purely and directly to me without the baggage tag of political commentary,” said Phil Kline on creating Zippo Songs, “I saw the poems as a vital little body of literature and began to think of a way to work with them as dramatic material, not propaganda."
An electro-acoustic chamber ensemble with vocalists Wilbur Pauley and Theo Bleckmann will join Phil Kline on stage for the live performance at the Kimmel Center.