As the title suggests there is something ancient-to-future about Monk’s music: “The voice is a language,” she writes in the album’s liner notes. “A world of continuing discoveries”.
That became increasingly obvious in her career as she wrote for orchestras, theatre ensembles, dance groups and others.
Bjork is a fan of Dolmen Music, Peter Greenaway directed a doco about Monk and her music, David Byrne used some of her music in his film True Stories, there a funny moment in The Big Lebowski where her music is referenced and Alex Ross in The Rest is Noise described Monk as manipulating “the extremes of her voice to produce the illusion of Ur-folk music, a ritual language of sensual chants”.
If you think “Ur-folk” is for you, you should start with Dolmen Music.
