Harry Partch

Gatefold 180 gram vinyl reissue, originally released in 1971. "In this long-awaited masterwork, Harry Partch rises above all attempts at descriptive containment and becomes quite simply heroic. Delusions Of The Fury, proceeding from tragedy to comedy, is nothing less than the full, ritualistic expression, in vocal instrumental and corporeal terms, of the reconciliation by the living both with death and with life. It is a total Partch statement, incorporating voices, mime, his celebrated instruments, dance, lighting and staging, all working to express this philosophical concept. Delusion Of The Fury, as is to be expected, is not cast in the common dramatic/musical mold."

Originally recorded for Columbia Masterworks and long-since out of print, this  is acentral item of American musical history. Like composer Conlon Nancarrow, Partch had to wait until late in life for his radical contributions to the arts to receive wide attention. With the 1969 production of Delusion he was 'discovered', idolized, and gurufied, as a 43-tone-to-the-octave, ex-hobo, eccentric, maverick, iconoclastic instrument-builder, and a 'philosophic music-man seduced into carpentry.' Hippy hyperbole notwithstanding, Partch was a genuine far-out radical whose time has come. Again. Delusion of the Fury is a 72' totally-integrated, corporeal, microtonal, elemental work of ritual theater, incorporating almost all of Partch's hand-built orchestra of sculptural instruments. Using mime, dance, music, vocalizations, lighting, and costume, Partch presents two tales concerning reconciliation of life and death, one after a Japanese Noh drama, the other after an Ethiopian folk tale. 

Perhaps the most astonishing, seductive and compelling of Partch's works, Delusion stands as the 'Choral Symphony' or 'Ring Cycle' do to other composers: a culminating testament to a lifetime of 'doing your own thing.'