fascinating
I bought this on CD a while before it appeared on emusic; I was somewhat reluctant to experiment with a composer like Cage, but The Gramophone enthusiastically recommended it. Thankfully I can do likewise. Litany for the Whale sounds exactly as the title suggests, with 2 voices calling and responding as if across the ocean; there are more fun ways of spending 25 minutes but it is worth hearing. My favorite track is The Wonderful Widow, a Joyce setting for voice and - heh - closed piano. Other highlights are Paul Hillier's setting of the bizarre Aria for Cathy Berberian into a 6-voice version, and the solo Experiences no2, which reminded me of Irish sean-nos singing. Terry Riley makes a spoken contribution to the Mesostics (which are based around either of 2 words, Marcel and Duchamp).
