Review – Mike Patton – Luciano Berio Laborintus II

Mike’s love for all things Italian (as well as endless genre-hopping) continues.
Speaking of genre-hopping…
There’s seemingly no stone that Patton left unturned in his attempts to cover different sides of Italian music – there’s traditional  pop (Mondo Cane), soundtrack work of Ennio Moricone (Fantomas’ Director’s Cut) and finally here’s his tribute to avant-garde works of Luciano Berio.
Its not the first time that Patton paid tribute to Italian avant-garde either (see this hilarious clip for a proof), but certainly one of his most ambitious projects of this kind to date.
Laborintus II captures a 2010 tribute (with Patton being joined by  Ictus Ensemble and Nederlands Kemerkoo) to the original piece, which was written in 1965 to commemorate the anniversary of Dante’s death.
Safe to say – this work isn’t for anyone.
Best described as a fusion of Patton’s contribution to John Zorn’s “Moonchild” and some of Stockhausen’s vocal pieces, Laborintus II is a noble attempt to bring the original to a larger public, but something tells me that it will fall on deaf ears.
That’s not to say that its bad per se (Mike certainly knows his avant-garde as well as he knows his rock’n’roll), but its a very dense and complex work.  An ideal listener for Laborintus II is someone who possess an extremely open mind,  patience and lots of time on his/her hands – a rare creature in this day and age.