Tim Perkins & Alan Moore

"Angel Passage" (Album, 2002) !Recommended!

RE:

Originally performed at London's Purcell Rooms as part of the Tygers of Wrath William Blake retrospective in YEAR, Angel Passage is a spoken word/musical collaboration between comic book legend Alan (Watchmen, V For Vendetta, From Hell) Moore and composer Tim Perkins, committed here to CD courtesy of Steven Severin's experimental RE: label.

Angel Passage offers up a fascinating take on the revered poet Blake - a man who claimed he could see angels. Here, Moore applies his hallucinatory storytelling, weaving a tale about Blake departing this mortal coil, who witnesses but avoids being sucked into Hell, only to return as a ghost roaming the back streets and alleyways of London town.

True to (and clearly inspired by) his subject, this is Moore in full-blown gothic delirious mode. Every florid turn of phrase and masterful combination of words is wrapped within a nightmarish vision of a sinister parallel universe - part Chaucer/part Dante - unfolding before our ears on familiar but somehow different streets. With masterful efficiency Moore brilliantly captures the sense of locations within England's capital city.

With Moore on absolute top form, it would have been understandable if composer Tim Perkins were overshadowed by his co-creator. But none of it. Perkins has created a remarkable soundtrack to Moore's gravel-voiced narrative. It's part mood-setting, part musical score, and part scene painting. The journey from the introduction of Golden Square, through Innocence, Hell, Experience and, finally, the glorious run through the London streets in Heaven. Angel Passage is an inspired collaboration, the combined talents of which have seamlessly merged to create a strikingly memorable experience. 8/10

Rob Dyer (August 2009)