US STEEL CELLO ENSEMBLE - NOISE IN THE LIBRARY (LP)

"Bob Rutman's life could be compared to the life of Odysseus, although we're not here to write his biography. Putojefe is happy to present his phenomenal Noise In The Library, recorded with the U.S. Steel Cello Ensemble, an all-steel string quartet established by himself in Boston in 1976. The Ensemble consists of one Steel Cello and three Bow Chimes, played by Rutman and a rotating cast of guest musicians: in this instance, Daniel Orlansky -one of Rutman's closest collaborators and longest-lasting member of the band-, Stephanie Wolff and Alex Dorsch. The instruments, built and developed by Rutman, are impressive sound sculptures in themselves, made of large flexible sheets of metal and defined by the artist as "American Industrial folk instruments". Recorded live at Passionskirche in Berlin on May 31st, 1989, in the prime of the Ensemble's career, this is one of the last few examples of great, powerful music made by humans without the indiscriminate use of electronics or binary codes. A sometimes frightening and breathtakingly intense performance, as thoroughly mysterious as early American soil, as it first appeared to the eyes of visionary European minds." (label info)