Many Things Invisible

This production is an intriguing experience in poetry and music that creates an unusual and agreeable collage of word songs. Carrington MacDuffie unselfconsciously performs her own works on observing consciousness. Her silky voice weaves in and out of the acoustic, electronic, and nature sounds provided by Near the Border. The listening experience is peaceful, meditative, and engaging. The high quality of audio mixing highlights the many layers of sound, which range from clicks to bells to tones from the magnetosphere. The 14 poems and their musical illustrations are over all too quickly, but the hour-long experience is only as far away as the repeat button. R.F. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

May 15, 2008
Ever since the 1950s, when poets in San Francisco began reading with jazz musicians, attempts have been made to mesh poetry and performance (and hopefully appeal to a wider audience). There was the highly successful "Def Poetry Jam". Poetry slams (contests that pit one writer or team of writers against one another) have called attention to amazing writers like Marc Kelly, Reggie Cabico, and Maggie Estep, and poets everywhere keep searching for new modes of presentation. MacDuffie's effort shows just how horrendous these attempts can be. As the program begins playing, ear-shattering New Age music composed by Bryan Null assaults the eardrums; eventually, a woman's voice emerges. It doesn't seem to be saying much. Finally, we move to the next poem. Perhaps not quite as bad, but with words and sounds that seem to have no connection. Dedicated listeners have to suffer through 14 of these pieces. If you can isolate just the words, there are probably four or five mediocre poems ("Train Ride," "Fossil") that could stand on their own. Meanwhile, librarians are urged not to believe any of the audio's hype. [Also available as downloadable audio from Audible.com. Reviewer Ratner, who contributed poetry reviews to "LJ" for over 30 years and audio reviews for almost as long, died in March 2008.Ed.]Rochelle Ratner, formerly with "Soho Weekly News", New York

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