Search - Ingram Marshall :: Alcatraz: Ingram Marshall

Work of Art

john | USA | 06/30/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This extraordinary album from the multi-talented team of Ingram Marshall(music) and Jim Bengston (photography)was a decade in the making. It shows. The music captures the feelings and thoughts of the island ALCATRAZ and all who have claimed inhabitance on it. The opening number "The Bay" is a flowing piece composed with watery strings and some windy effects. It sets the mood for a foggy night weighing down upon the island. "Introduction" is one of the most retro-classical songs on the album. The piano is accompanied with some ambient bells. Clearly a piece ahead of its time. Then "The Approach" with its simplistic piano echos brings the listener up the rocks and then further into the piece the lone piano is accompanied by some flute and cello orchestrations. Then the low keys proclaim their existence for a while. "Inside" is a piece where the demo sounds from the prison are revealed with the slamming of cell doors with an electronic sounding whimpering. "Rules and Regulations" is a William Orbit-esque track. The lucid yet smokey vocals haunt the song and and a lonley cello accomponies a bell. "Cell Doors" is a fierce track oozing with layers. The sounds all flow together in a sea of music. It fades at one point and comes back with a coorupted flute. My favorite track on the album is "Solitary". Munk chants are actually Ingram doing to notes drawn out and pasted together to achieve this magnificent ghost voice. Like souls trapped in a box wailing for mercy. "Escape" is an up beat track with its almost heavenly sounding piano number. "End" is a waltzy, dancable number with a happy ending to a life of lonliness. Its the light at the "end" of a tunnel. The album closer is a postlude "The Bay" contains dreary imagery of cold and dark nights on a damp stone floor. This grammy worthy album is a bridge of music genres and talent oozes in every second of each song."

A Chilling, Haunting Masterpiece

Daniel R. Greenfield | Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States | 01/12/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This work will bring you face to face with the ghosts of Alcatraz. You will never forget the voices, the slamming iron doors, the echoing hopelessness, the incredible isolation of this place. Ingram Marshall has created a modern masterpiece that starkly depicts the experience of the prisoner (namely, you the listener) who must make this island his permanent home. Yes, there is the track called "Escape", but you will never escape from this place. I hear echoes of Philip Glass throughout this work, but really, Marshall has transcended imitating anyone. He has created a compelling, chilling vision of punishment and eternal abandonement."

An Apt Collage Of Music and Sounds

J. Pour | 03/08/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Marshall effectively takes us on aural tour of the infamous penal institute incoprorating the maritime sounds of San Fancisco Bay, including the clanging of bell buoys, the soundings of fog horns, the churning of screws and the like, as well as, the prison sounds of slamming cell doors, the echo of footsteps off cell block walls, and haunting voices spouting "rules and regulations" over and over. It is easy to invision the decaying, corroding and decrepit facility resting and rotting away in the middle of the bay, a barren wasteland once inhabited by so many evil, desparate, perverse and lost souls. The loneliness and isolation of it all.... This is not at all ambient music to me. It is a stark and eerie reminder of penalties paid, hard, dangerous living and the lost souls of Alcatraz. Many separated forever from the remainder of society and loved ones. The tour begins with great anticipation and concludes with a reflective meditation of what we've just witnessed. Wonderfully written and performed."