Album Notes

Quote from New Hope International (England):
A real treat.

Quote from American Record Guide:
Elodie Lauten's Waking in New York is a sort of two act rock opera with text by legendary New York beat poet Allen Ginsberg, but that description doesn't begin to do justice to this strange but oddly compelling work. The atmosphere is rock and broadway, but neither genre would accept these wild and marvelously demented chord changes. The basic sound is that of a rock record (it is always loud). Anyone who has lived in Manhattan will feel a kindred spirit at work here - this is a music of Gotham updated to our times, immortablized by one of the best poetic voices, and put in motion by a composer in tune with the pulse of her city. But is it 'classical"? Actually I think it is, and it may be the beginnings of a new serious musical theater. One thing it is not is pretentious.

Quote from Gramophone, U.K. (Awards issue 2003), by Ken Smith:
Lauten reveals greater artistry the further you look beneath the surface, successfully marking the leaps in Ginsberg's own impressionistic narrative with appropriate changes in metre and key. The music itself reaches a level of inner calm and resolution that is very much indicative of the poet's world.

Quote from the New York Times. by Alan Kozinn:
Lovely, effective and affecting song cycle for vocal ensemble and orchestra.

Quote from Sequenza 21:
Elodie Lauten has been a fixture of the downtown musical scene for more than three decades. During that time she has produced some 18 recordings on 10 labels and has become widely recognized as a pioneer of post-minimalism.


Critics have hailed Elodie Lauten's music in the U.S. and abroad as "an extraordinary revelation...a fixture of future musical lexicons" (England), "wonderfully exciting music" (Netherlands), "food for the soul" (Canada), "elegiac melodies" (The New York Times), "grand work that we are likely to return to again and again" (21st Century Music), "mesmerizing" (Option Magazine), "powerful, spontaneous and enlightening" (Santa Fe Sun.) She has been called "a composer of enchanting music... a seminal figure... one of the leading postminimal composers...a major talent (The Village Voice), "a musical magus in the Renaissance tradition" (Chicago Reader), "a force on the new music scene" (Fanfare). Lauten's Variations on the Orange Cycle (Lovely Music, 1998) was included in Chamber Music America's list of 100 Best Works of the 20th Century.

Elodie Lauten's musical career spans 3 decades. She has earned a place in music history and is widely recognized as a pioneer of post-minimalism, with 18 LP and CD releases to-date on more than 10 labels. Lauten has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts (1985), The Massachusetts Council on the Arts (1987), ASCAP (every year since 1987), Meet the Composer (83, 86, 96,97, 99, 01), the American Music Center Music Liberty Initiative (2001) and commissions from Lincoln Center (1988), the Soho Baroque Opera (1996), Harpsichord Unlimited (97, 98, 99, 03), The Lark Ascending (1999), The Bozeman Symphony Society (2000).

Lauten's compositions include: pieces for piano - solo piano as well as piano & tape (electronic, computer-generated and/or concrete; chamber operas and song cycles; music for the Trine, her custom-designed electro-acoustic lyre; chamber music (solos, trios, quartets and sextets); orchestral music; and electronic music. Approximately 90% of her output has been premiered and released.