www.revolve.com.au
This CD is a 77 minute
reading of verse by Derek Strahan. He
and Amanda Holdsworth share the podium,
accompanied by sounds which are occasionally
not unlike music. After three years
at Cambridge Mr. Strahan has almost
completely lost his Australian accent,
whereas Ms. Holdsworth retains significant
traces of hers. I can’t explain why
Australian accents seem to convey a
sense of mirth, which conflicts with
the terribly, terribly serious tone
of these monologues. Ms. Holdsworth
is strikingly pretty with wide gray
eyes, and her picture may be the very
most interesting thing about this entire
production.
Lucifer Dialogues
from "Eden in Atlantis" is
a conflation of the Atlantis and Eden
myths; Mr. Strahan appears behind flames
in satanic makeup in a booklet photo.
London Letters is about a morning
in London, believe it or not, something
about running up and down stairs and
taking a shower. Past Life Recall
discusses the idea of soul-mates who
are lovers in successive lives. While
the language throughout is generally
G-rated, the four letter F-word gets
a bit of a workout in this one. Experiences
with the Anima is fortunately very
brief; I haven’t any idea what it’s
about.
Being something of
a poet myself, I remember having thoughts
like these when I was about 22 years
old. Unfortunately, Mr. Strahan is much
older than that, but he seems to be
enjoying himself. There will be some
persons who will really like this disk,
particularly, I suspect, if they have
a good supply of marijuana and have
relatively relaxed standards regarding
poetry as well as music and are receptive
to very individual viewpoints. Far be
it from me to want to spoil anybody’s
fun.
Paul Shoemaker
