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Notes From Ralph[]

The Residents have a long history of story-based music projects, starting with 1974's Not Available, continuing with God in 3 Persons in 1988, and more recently The River of Crime in 2006.  With The Voice of Midnight, The Residents have now taken a bold step, crossing a line into the world of music theater.

For The Voice of Midnight, The Residents have adapted a short story, Der Sandmann, by Prussian writer E.T.A. Hoffman.  The story was first published 190 years ago.

On the surface, Der Sandmann is a simple story of madness.  However, it has been recognized as addressing the conflict between the age of reason and the romantic era by scholars who have studied the tale.  It has been adapted, in parts, by Jacques Offenbach for his opera The Tales of Hoffman, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky for The Nutcracker Suite, and for the ballet Coppelia.  Freud extensively interpreted Der Sandmann in his famous essay Das Unheimilche in 1919.  Freud was fascinated by Hoffman's obsession with eyeballs.

The protagonist of the story is Nathaniel (Nate) who carries a deeply-seated fear that the childhood fable character, the sandman, is stalking him.  The character of Nate is superbly performed by Corey Rosen who first worked with The Residents on River of Crime in 2006.  Nate's fiance, Clair, a steadfast realist, is performed by Gerri Lawler who also worked on River of Crime as well as Tweedles.  Long time Residents collaborator Carla Fabrizio performs the role of the other "woman," Olympia.

The Residents embody the other characters, and perform the music, assisted by soloist Nolan Cook, whose guitar work for the Residents over the last eight years is legendary.

- The Cryptic Corporation, Press Release, 2007[1]

The crown of the year is worn by The Voice of Midnight. By all accounts, a major new work. Even with criticisms about the "radio-drama" rendition of the finale, no one can deny that the multi-layered music and writing perfectly captures the retelling of ETA Hoffman's, The Sandman. So while it illustrates ever growing skills at handling complex and subtle nuances and is a must own for any collection, how is it for just plain fun listening? Just as the original story is not much fun reading, this album will not be in heavy rotation just for pleasurable listening. Though certainly that is part of the calculation by The Residents. They designed it as a "play" and no one listens to a play over an over as they might a new album by, say, Amy Winehouse.

- Big Brother, Bog, 2007[2]

The elements of "radio drama" acting and classic story by ETA Hoffman certainly differentiate this from other Residents albums as well as your usual "alternative" bands of 2007.  These are not the radical elements [...]  It is the music, the real "voice" of the album.  God in 3 Persons had the story line but only used music to support the mood and cadence.  The Voice of Midnight integrates the music into the story in radically new ways.  The most surprising of these is the attempt to capture the schizophrenic nature of the story.  Some people may see this as a lack of a cohesive sound, but it is far more calculated than that.  The music is perhaps their boldest step away from 20th Century structure since Eskimo.  Recorded at a time when music is dominated by the downloading of MP3 singles from the internet, The Voice of Midnight flies directly in the face of this trend by offering no songs, nothing to hum.  It denounces the “trivial” in music in a way that is both a part of the story as well as a reflection of The Residents themselves leaping from the tower.  One never knows where the Residents may go next, but this album, to me, says it is the end of something important, and says it with such depth that I have not been able to decipher all the implications.  It is indeed the "voice of midnight."

- Big Brother, Scars, 2008

Cosmichobo1 (Admin) (talk) 15:49, February 18 2023