Shimmy-Disc Records founder Kramer have a new album featuring Edgar Allan Poe poems set to music and read by Thurston & Eva Moore, Lydia Lunch, Joan as Police Woman, Britta Phillips, Rick Moody, Teller (the usually silent member of Penn & Teller), and more. POE – To One in Paradise is also dedicated to Kramer’s friend and master curator of unusual collaborations, the late Hal Willner. It will be out October 18 via Shimmy-Disc. In addition to readings recorded specifically for this album, POE ends with an archival recording of Allen Ginsberg reading “The Bells” from 1981. Check out the tracklist with contributors below.
The first piece released from the album features Lydia Lunch reading Poe’s creepy 1844 poem, “Dreamland,” atop appropriately eerie strings by Kramer. Watch the “ambient cinema” video, also made by Kramer, below.
POE – To One in Paradise (for Hal Willner)
Side A
“To One in Paradise” by JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN
“Eldorado” by EDGAR OLIVER
“To My Mother” by THURSTON MOORE & EVA MOORE
“The Valley of Unrest” by ERIC MINGUS
“A Dream Within a Dream” by BRITTA PHILLIPS
“Evening Star” by TELLER
Side B
“Fairy-Land” by ANNE WALDMAN
“Dreamland” by LYDIA LUNCH
“The Sleeper” by LARRY “RATSO” SLOMAN
“Silence” by CHLOE WEBB
“Imitation” by RICK MOODY
“The Lake” by JENNIFER CHARLES
“The Bells” by ALLEN GINSBERG