A Sweet Quasimodo between Black Vampire Butterflies

A Sweet Quasimodo ... is stunning music for two pianos played simultaneously in a tremolo style that Palestine calls 'strumming,' a technique that has defined his piano music since the late '60s. It spins out its sonic tapestry in surges and ebbs, and dense sonorities with hypnotically dancing overtones growing from its few opening pitches. This live recording from the Maybeck recital hall (February 2006) also contains Palestine's short spoken reminiscence about his life in California more than 30 years earlier and a few very short 'ritual' songs in his unique falsetto vocal style accompanied by the drone of a rubbed brandy snifter