Kramer Releases Poe “To One in Paradise” (for Hal Willner)

Last month, Kramer released a return-to-form album, once again revisiting his beloved spoken-word discipline, in collaboration with an incredible roster of artists. Released via Shimmy-Disc, Poe “To One in Paradise” (for Hal Willner) is a collection of Edgar Allan Poe’s immortal poems read by musicians, poets, actors & one magician, and dedicated to the memory of Kramer’s great friend and fellow traveller on the musical roads least taken, Hal Willner (1956 – 2020).

Though the record was released digitally last month, the vinyl records are set to hit stores on November 15th. In celebration of the vinyl release of POE “To One in Paradise” (for Hal Willner), Kramer shares a brand new piece of ambient cinema to accompany the track “The Lake,” read by Jennifer Charles (of Elysian Fields). 

Speaking about working with Kramer on “The Lake,” Jennifer Charles says, “The mysteries that water holds, that nature holds, are kin to the elusive, mutating nature of love. ‘The Lake’ is such a poem, that undulates with the dark membrane between life and death, where love’s shadow always sleeps. Kramer conjured this world perfectly with my voice and Poe’s poem.  I fell in love with the world of Poe as a girl – nothing more romantic than communing with the dead, right? And here we also give tribute to our dear friend and entrusted musical mentor Hal Willner, who we tragically lost to early Covid. Hal featured Elysian Fields in his great Poe tribute concert at St. Ann’s (Bklyn) and Royce Hall (L.A.), so we’ve come full circle. And I know Hal can still hear our howls.”

Kramer has curated an eclectic collection of voices to render living vision to Poe’s entombed words, and draped them in a series of ambient musical landscapes evocative of a world long lost to time. What he offers us here is nothing less than a fully imagined symphony of voice, sound, and memory. The music he created that accompanies each reading keeps the light shining on the performer, polishing the space between the poetry and the performance. As a fitting coda, an archival recording of Allen Ginsberg vividly reciting “The Bells” closes out the album. 

“I’ve known Kramer since the early original Knitting Factory days,” Charles remarks, “and we’ve always danced as two respectful ships that pass in the night. Finally we’re getting to make something together, and I feel we’re just dipping our toes in!”

Poe – To One In Paradise (For Hal Willner) Track listing:
All Poems By Edgar Allan Poe (Read By…)

Side A:
“To One In Paradise” by Joan as Police Woman
“Eldorado” by Edgar Oliver
“To My Mother” by Thurston Moore & Eva Moore
“The Valley Of Unrest” by Eric Mingus
“A Dream Within A Dream” by Britta Phillips
“Evening Star” by Teller

Side B:
“Fairy-Land” by Anne Waldman
“Dreamland” by Lydia Lunch
“The Sleeper” by Larry “Ratso” Sloman
“Silence” by Chloe Webb
“Imitation” by Rick Moody
“The Lake” by Jennifer Charles
“The Bells” by Allen Ginsberg

About Kramer:
Kramer is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, ‘ambient-cinema’ filmmaker, and artist. Celebrated as a collaborator and champion for some of the most boundary-pushing artists of his generation via his NYC-based label Shimmy-Disc, Kramer has played bass guitar with Ween, Butthole Surfers, Half Japanese, B.A.L.L., and numerous other bands. He revived Shimmy-Disc in 2020 via Joyful Noise Recordings, after being named their 2020 Artist-in-Residence.

In 2023, Shimmy-Disc released Kramer’s collaborative LP with ambient music pioneer Laraaji, entitled Baptismal. Also in 2023, Shimmy-Disc released a six-EP limited-edition wooden box set of 7″ vinyl EPs featuring new collaborations with Britta Phillips (Luna), Paul Leary (Butthole Surfers), Rob Crow (Pinback), Jad Fair (Half Japanese) & Danielson, and with David Grubbs (Gastr Del Sol) as Squanderers.

So far in 2024, Shimmy-Disc will release three of Kramer’s planned collaborative LPs. The first with Pan American (Mark K. Nelson) entitled Reverberations of Non-Stop Traffic on Redding Road, released in March and most recently, The Walk with Kato Hideki, released in August. 2024 will conclude with first LP from Squanderers, a trio featuring guitarists Wendy Eisenberg and David Grubbs, and 2025 will begin with the second release from the amazing archives of electronic music pioneer Bruce Haack, “This Old Man.” Originally released in 1975, this LP has never been reissued, until now. Re-Mastered by Kramer and available in a limited-edition of 100 hand-numbered black vinyl LPs via mail-order only, or in stores on clear vinyl. Release Date: Feb. 28, 2025.

About Jennifer Charles:
Jennifer Charles is an American singer-songwriter and co-founder of the New York band Elysian Fields. Her work is known for its emotional intensity, with her writing exploring nature, love, loss, death, myth, and identity, often with philosophical and literary influences. Besides Elysian Fields, Charles has other projects. She and Bloedow recorded La Mar Enfortuna for Zorn’s Tzadik label, featuring renditions of Sephardic and Ladino songs. She has studied classical Indian singing with teacher Gulamji.

In late 2007, she and Bloedow put out a second Tzadik full-length, under the band name La Mar Enfortuna, called Conviviencia. Charles sings in five languages on the record, including Ladino, Spanish, Aramaic, Arabic, and Greek. Charles recorded in French with the French composer Jean-Louis Murat for the album A bird on a poire in 2004, which was nominated for a Victoires de la Musique award in the category Best Pop or Rock Album.

Charles was back on stage in 2008 in the Off Broadway production “Lightning at Our Feet,” inspired by poet Emily Dickinson, under the direction of Obie winner Bob McGrath, with film maker Bill Morrison and composer Michael Gordon, which was part of the Next Wave festival at Brooklyn Academy of Music in December 2008, where she sang and acted, channeling the iconic 19th century poet. The latest Elysian Fields records, Bohemian Flesh, was released on Ojet Records in 2023. Although Jennifer and Kramer have been friends for over three decades, this is their first collaboration.

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