Zippo Songs: Poems from the Front
"Kline has graduated from 'experimental' to 'original' - he's one of America's most important compositional voices - thanks to his burning urge to communicate, and not things that can be reduced to a charismatic sentence. His pieces become part of your inner life no matter how little you understand them. That's why 'What does it mean?' is answered by 'Why does it matter?'"
--David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer
Best CD of 2004: Phil Kline's Zippo Songs "From the words American GI's in Vietnam etched on their Zippo lighters, Phil Kline has fashioned brilliant American lieder for the 21st century. Tinged with elements of the psychedelic 60's, they communicate with a direct vernacular eloquence."
--Anne Midgette, The New York Times
Record of the Year: Phil Kline's Zippo Songs "Few are the new pieces that demand repeated hearings, but Phil Kline's Zippo Songs, a setting of texts by Vietnam-era GIs, has stirred considerable attention during this US election year. The raw power of this piece is enhanced by an understated performance that keeps growing in power. I'd love to send it to everyone I know."
--Ken Smith, Gramophone
Phil Kline has emerged as one of the 21st Century’s most intriguing song composers.
Mining texts found in speeches, interviews and graffiti for the unique poetry of the American vernacular, Kline’s quasi-theatrical songs are by turns intense, dark, dizzying, confrontational and funny, but always with an ear for musical beauty.
...by turns intense, dark, dizzying, confrontational and funny...
He places his voices in the multi-level sound world of an electro-acoustic chamber ensemble, mixing classical and rock instruments with electronics played by an elite group of New York’s new music specialists.
Zippo Songs (2003) sets texts that American GIs engraved on their Zippo lighters in Vietnam. The songs follow like a harrowing series of haiku, expressing the gamut of emotions young men feel under the threat of imminent oblivion.
Alex Ross of The New Yorker called it “One of the most brutally frank song cycles ever penned.”