The Coral Sea

2005年，美国朋克教母Patti Smith曾携手英国自赏乐队My Bloody Valentine首脑人物Kevin Shields在英国伦敦Queen Elizabeth Hall进行了两场演出，而演出的名字就叫“The Coral Sea”——同时也与Patti在1996出版的书的名称相合。说来，The Coral Sea，包括书和表演都是为了纪念Patti的好友，摄影鬼才，人称“黑暗王子”的Robert Mapplethorpe（Patti的处女专辑Horses的封面肖像摄影就是由他亲自拍摄）。而Mapplethorpe本人已经在1989年3月9日死于同性交往引起的艾滋病了。 这张现场专辑并没有曲目名称，而且表演形式是Patti进行口述，Kevin为其用吉他等设备进行背景音乐伴奏。尽管Cat Power也曾在05年的表演中出现，但这次的专辑并没有收录Cat的部分。 　Legendary artist Patti Smith and My Bloody Valentine s Kevin Shields are set to release a double disc set of their live performance of The Coral Sea on their own PASK imprint. The Coral Sea is Patti Smith s posthumous homage to her friend and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and the title to her 1997 book. Kevin Shields accompanies her on guitars and effects and creates a haunting backdrop to the spoken prose. The love recordings were made June 22nd 2005 and September 12th 2006 respectively at sold out performances at the QEH in London. The set will run almost two hours with a different stylistic approach to each performance. The UK s Guardian upon reviewing 　　the 2005 performance gave it 5 stars and called it magical. One critic 　　said of the live performance: A kind of screaming requiem, The Coral Sea describes Mapplethorpe s terminal illness. Intense, layered electronics surged to a discordant climax as Patti Smith read her poem, the words sailing over the noise like an ocean liner, with the black and white video showing the ocean, the liner and the grey twilight of grief. The poem tells the story of M 　　(Mapplethorpe) on a final voyage to see the stars of the Southern Cross before 　　he dies.