Amy Denio - Tattoo (Unit Circle Soundtrack Series Vol. 1)

1. Bones
2. Birds
3. Victorian
4. Ghosting
5. Saiko I
6. Construction
7. Saiko II
8. Focus Up
9. Sneaking
10. Saiko III
11. Architecture
12. Boots
13. Hanana
14. Footsteps
15. Saiko IV
16. Skirts
17. Birds (Lopez Mix)
18. Astroboy
19. Filth (Cleanup)
20. Checkerboard
21. La Selva Original
22. End Roar

I was lucky enough to attend the primeire of Tattoo by the Pat Graney Dance Company in Seattle in the fall of 1999. The piece is a stunning work in all aspects, especially the score by Amy Denio. I'd been thinking for a long time that I wanted Unit Circle to start doing a soundtrack series. I wasn't interested in doing traditional soundtracks though. Soundtracks currently dominate the music market and feature films are frequently viewed as a venue for selling soundtrack CDs first. I wanted to feature soundtracks that were truly of their subject and could stand on their own as well. After seeing Tattoo, I knew that it needed to be our first release in the Unit Circle Soundtrack series, and here it is! It was released in September of 2000.

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Reviews

All Music Guide

This soundtrack by Amy Denio, one of the more ubiquitous talents on the downtown New York scene, will shock and surprise those fans of her previously released music. While it's true that this may be due to the fact that it was composed for a choreographed work, it is nonetheless a Denio composition encompassing the construction noise outside her studio, her voice, accordion, guitar, bass, water slapping, dancers' footsteps, and field recordings (of found sound). Each of the work's 22 segments showcases a different element and combines — often, but not always — the sounds which appeared in the previous segments. Denio plays the role of composer here just as soulfully as she performs her own work. And while she cheats a little by borrowing a piece from the Danubians — one of her bands — for a cue, it fits perfectly. This is ambient music, not in the sense that it inhabits spaces to change their ambience, but it is music that actually is created by arranging and enhancing the inherent sounds of spaces in order to mark them for something — like a tattoo. A tattoo is much like the work of dancing itself: Steps and moves are arranged within and upon the physical limitations of a defined space, in order to expand and adorn them. And of course, dance is dance because of the arrangement of sound coming from a particular place. In this case, that place, that vast terrain, is a body and a mind: Amy Denio. - Thom Jurek

Don Campau's No Pigeonholes

I cant say it enough...I love this damn CD! Its a soundtrack to a dance performance, Tattoo but stands alone easily as a breakthrough set for the highly regarded Ms. Denio. Strange japanese speakers, drones, accordions and more.

Opposition de phase

Travail étrange et différent d'Amy Denio, qui travaille ici sur les sons.