Alice Shields
Shenandoah

Alice Shields' electronic music is too rarely heard. This CD containing three compositions - 'Vegetable Karma' (1999), 'Dust' (2002), and 'Shenandoah' (2001) - is a welcome addition to the literature.

In general, her music projects a transcultural take on the world, combining, for example, east and west through the haunting sounds of an Indian raga with bursts of hip-hop samples, or low sounds articulated with a Tibetan trumpet. She visited the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia shortly after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and interviewed recent immigrants, often quoting their music in a pattern that moves from voice to musical excerpt. And the music, like the voices, comes from around the world.