Listen on:
Animals and Giraffes is an ongoing collaboration between writer/performer Claudia La Rocco and saxophonist/composer Phillip Greenlief. The project explores the intersection of text and sound, and features a changing roster featuring some of the finest bay area improvisers.
- Phillip Greenlief - reeds
- Claudia La Rocco - text & voice
- David Boyce - voice, tenor saxophone, electronics
- Nava Dunkelman - percussion
- Jeanie-Aprille Tang - electronics
- Tara Sreekrishnan - piano
- Evelyn Davis - prepared piano
- Aurora Josephson - voice
- Tim Perkis - electronics
- Jon Raskin - baritone saxophone
- John Shiurba - guitar
- Karen Stackpole - gongs, percussion
The poetry itself is inscrutable to me, a patchwork of mostly immediate images: settings and actions taking place now or in recent memory. But it doesn’t follow a linear flow, feeling more like stream-of-consciousness.
Craig Matsumoto, Memory Select
claudia la rocco’s voice is a quiet snarl: calm, measured, sometimes provocative, always defiant. – remember the way her legs spear and thrust – each track finds her accompanied by a different set of bay area musicians. – put the mountain in a box, put the box in a dumpster – rumblings and rattlings, abrasive synths, extended techniques galore, the sounds are sometimes with and sometime against, but always underneath. – your skin looks buttery and delicious – it’s la rocco’s voice that dominates, telling stories about ballet, the body, poisonous relationships, and sexual violence.
Phil Phactor KFJC FM 89.7