Composed and Orchestrated by Jonathan Bepler. Featuring: Norian Philharmonic, Tabernacle Bass Choir, Patty Griffin and Dave Lombardo (Drums on track 3, "Man In Black")
Audio CD in Jewel case, with 24 page booklet by Matthew Barney.
"Cremaster 2" is part of Matthew Barney's epic and colossal Cremaster Cycle, a series of five avant-garde films made between 1994 and 2002. Ripe with symbolism and awe-inspiring imagery, the Cremaster Cycle is named for the male cremaster muscle that "controls testicular contractions in response to external stimuli." The films progress from representations of the most undifferentiated or "ascended" state ("Cremaster 1") to the most differentiated or "descended" state ("Cremaster 5").
"Cremaster 2" is Barney's sprawling ode to the American West. It features, among other things, lots of bees, a séance, a rock drum solo, glacial and Salt Lake landscapes, a French bulldog, reversing bison, the double "C" Cremaster Cycle symbol, a dazzling honeycombed saddle, the Texas two-step, Sinclair gas, #55 Brahma bull in a death row rodeo, and cultural icons Gary Gilmore (Barney himself) and Harry Houdini (played by Norman Mailer, Gilmore's biographer), plus a couple of Canadian Mounties backed by the organ-grinding Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
