Turtle Dreams
Turtle Dreams is an album by American composer and vocalist Meredith Monk recorded in 1983 and released on the ECM New Series label. A choreographed version of the work premiered at the Plexus Club in Chelsea, Manhattan. A film version, directed by Ping Chong, was broadcast the same year on September 2, 1983 on WGBH in Boston, Massachusetts. Inspiration. In the late 1970s Monk acquired a turtle named Neutron as a pet, and in 2016 said "When I first got her I had a lot of dreams about her, very strange dreams. And then I started thinking, how  does a turtle think? What would a turtle mind be, and if she’s sleeping, what would a turtle dream be?". In a 2010 interview, Monk said she found standard music concerts boring, and said "at that time I started to try to feed in elements to that situation – like one little element of movement. Turtle Dreams is a music piece that has a very simplified movement component. I was working on that music myself, and then I thought ‘wouldn’t it be interesting if the movement had a totally simple counterpoint? So instead of standing there singing, what about  if we went from side to side?’ And from there, the piece seemed to make itself.". She also added "When I was working on it I didn’t realise some things that I see now. There’s a certain fascist element to it, and I wasn’t conscious of that at the time. ... There’s a flatness, a surface style to the people, and maybe a kind of narcissism too." The film version of the piece includes footage of turtles, initially in natural settings and then walking across a world map and through a miniature model of a Western city . This footage was photographed and directed by filmmaker Robert Withers. Reception. AllMusic awarded the album four stars, with Ted Mills calling it "A daring display of vocal gymnastics and a journey back to childhood when all sounds were wondrous". After its premier John Rockwell of the New York Times wrote "The effect is rich, enigmatic and compelling." In 2020, interest in the performance piece was reignited after coverage by YouTube movie-review channel Red Letter Media, who featured a copy of the WGBH filmed version on their show "Best of the Worst". The group panned it, expressing confusion towards the  intent of the performance, with co-host Rich Evans notably summarizing the video as "the most jaw-dropping cringe embarrassment I've ever seen," declaring that he holds it "in utter contempt." Track listing. Tracks 1 and 2 recorded in New York City, track 3 recorded at Hanford Mills Museum in East Meredith, New York, and tracks 4 and 5 recorded at Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg, West Germany