“A tour de force on the idea of ideas…”
– The Boston Globe
“Atop and around the many direct instrumental mirrors of Mr. Dennett’s voice is a greater musical landscape that’s sometimes lyrical and lush and sometimes frisky and peppy.…”
– The New York Times
Alarm Will Sound is excited to announce the release of composer Scott Johnson’s Mind Out of Matter on Tzadik – John Zorn’s record label dedicated to avant garde and experimental music. Renowned philosopher Daniel C. Dennett’s own recorded voice delivers not only his ideas but also the melodies and rhythms at the heart of the music. Mind Out of Matter is available now on iTunes, Amazon, and Tzadik.
Mind Out of Matter is a 74-minute, eight movement suite, that brings together Scott Johnson’s mix of pop sensibilities and classical rigor with his groundbreaking work in transcribing speech into music. Musical styles as disparate as retro-funk and Baroque recitative blend to illuminate Dennett’s central claim: just as living organisms evolve in the physical environment, ideas and traditions compete within ecosystems made up of human minds and cultures. Those evolutionary forces shape the religious ideas that populate our minds, multiply within our cultures, and spread like viruses — sometimes to our benefit, sometimes not.
