Being in a funky mood this morning, I feel compelled to post some thoughts on Steven V. Funk's review of Lydia Kavina's album, "Music from the Ether: Original Works for Theremin". The article starts off with with the all-too-typical uninformed nod to Good Vibrations (read Strange Sounds for the real story), then proceeds to compare Kavina's tape loop work to "Halloween Sound Effects". He even goes as far to describe the recent work as "totally disposable and/or annoying as hell."
Unfortunately for Mr. Funk's readers, I believe this reviewer fell victim to the Beavis and Butthead philosophy: "If I don't understand it, it must suck." Granted, he doesn't rant on the entire album. He does give props to Percy Grainger, whom we will all appreciate. I hope some day Mr. Funk will take a long serious listen to this incredible album with an open ear and an appreciation for new music (no, Mr. Funk, I'm sure Lydia Kavina didn't have radio play in mind when she recorded songs over 3 minutes in length).
I am curious to learn more about Geoff Brady, a thereminist Mr. Funk says is as equally deserving of the title "world's leading thereminist" as Lydia Kavina, though given the slant of the rest of this review, I'll take that suggestion with a grain of salt until I've learned more.
The highlight of this article in my opinion is the link back to ThereminWorld. Hopefully his readers will follow the link & browse around to do a little research of their own in order to form their own opinions.
Link: CD Review: Lydia Kavina - Music from the Ether: Original Works for Theremin (blogcritics.org)
