The Morning Call from Allentown, Pennsylvania • 56

A56 THE MORNING CALL, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2001 Sntertainm Disc Reviews -c Cirque de Soleil spectacular coming to Philadelphia first time 1 1 Mermen music for after the wipeout. Montreal in April 1999, on the heels of permanent productions from Cirque du Soleil, including the Las Vegas-based which opened in October 1998, and "La Nouba," which premiered at Orlando's Walt Disney World in December 1998. The show features more than 55 artists from nine countries along with the house troupe of 37 Chinese acrobats. Their stunts include teeterboard, ballet on lights, hoop diving, bamboo poles, juggling, single-hand balancing, double trapeze and skipping ropes. Clowns, without which any circus would be incomplete, add their touch of madness.

The "Dralion" tour is going to 17 cities in the United States and Canada, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Quebec and Toronto. In Philadelphia, performances are scheduled for 8 p.m. Sept. 27 and Sept. 28, 4 and 8 p.m.

Sept 29 and 1 and 5 p.m. Sept. 30 during premiere week. The regular performance schedule is 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 5 and 9 p.m.

Thursdays and Fridays, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 1 and 5 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are adults; children. Call 1-80O678-5440 or visit www.cirquedusoleil.com.

Jodi Duckett Tickets go on sale Sunday for the first-ever Philadelphia appearance by the world-renowned Cirque du Soleil Sept. 27-Oct. 21. Cirque will raise its trademark blue-and-yellow big top on the Avenue of the Arts at Broad Street and Washington Avenue and present its new circus-art spectacular, "Dralion." "Dralion" is suspended in time between the past and the future, a celebration of life and the four elements that maintain the natural order air, water, fire, earth. The iridescent colors representing each of the elements are reflected in the metallic glints of a decor that comes straight out of the cinema fantas-tique.

The music is a fusion from around the world, including Hindu melodies and the sounds of instruments from Andalusia, Africa, Central Europe and the West. It borrows from more traditional sources, then bursts into the electro-symphonic realm of a world yet to come. "Dralion's" futuristic set is a huge technological structure with components that serve as accessories to the show's acrobats. "Dralion," directed by Guy Caron, the first artistic director of the- Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil, premiered in 1 A Kristen Hersh ouch! willing accomplice. If "Sunny Border Blue" has a flaw, it's Hersh's inability to write melodies equal to her words.

Hopefully that bit of candor won't keep anyone away from "Sunny Border Blue." ten Right Kristen Hersh, Josh Rrtter, 9 p.m. Friday and 10 p.m. next Saturday. Tin Angel, 20 S. Second Philadelphia, 215-922-0770.

RACHAEL SAGE: Painting Of A Painting (MPress) If the first thing you think of when you hear an artist's music is how much it resembles that of other, more popular artists, said artist may well have a problem with originality. Rachael Sage has such difficulties in spades. It's impossible to listen to her self-released disc, "Painting Of A Painting," without thinking immediately of Lilith Fair types such as Paula Cole, Ani DiFran-co and Alans Morrissette. It's all there the trilling, overwrought delivery, the humorless, p.c. tone, the self-absorption.

The only real distinguishing factor, alas, is Sage's other difficulty: errant pitch. John Terlesky LARA REYES: World Jazz (Higher Octave Music) Right off, the elegance on this, the sixth Higher Octave release by acoustic guitar duo SergVj Lara and Joe Reyes, grabs the cerebrum and won't let go. The opener. "Leona." has a kvefy, Afro-Cuban flair that leaves the listener panting for more intellectually, and in other sections of the instantly receptive bram. Such appetites are sated with "Nuevo Mundo," a lush, tropical ballad; "Danielle's Waftz," a decidedly European affair, and "(tela," where the focus is on the Near East replete with tabla, voice and other Indian instruments.

Except for the Indian piece, the styles of the 10 tunes here, penned by either Lara or Reyes, are sometimes hard to distinguish from one another. That hardly matters, though, because what's proffered is refreshment of the higher kind. Of course, along the way the Latn-jazz emphasis, with its semi-earthy beat can grab other areas of the anatomy. But it's the sheer intelligence of this music that shnes in the mind's eye, even as we tune back in to the mawkish arwaves of our orcfcnary days. Dave Cmskill John Terlesky.

Joe Warm-mskv III. Capri ftoth and Jsiies Doo'tH'e aro freelance ivr'e mi THE MERMEN: The Amazing California Health And Happiness Road Show (MesaBlue Moon) Surf music was always among the more literal of aural sensations. The staccato guitar runs, reverb-soaked drums, and general sense of minor key frenzy were meant to imitate the actual experience of "hanging 10." The Mermen make surf music but the San Francisco instrumental trio's version instead evokes the smooth, shimmering calm of being submerged in crystal clear water, at least for a good portion of "The Amazing California Health And Happiness Road Show." That's not to say that there's no "riding the curt" going on here. In fact hyper-choogles "Sponge Cookie" and "Little Stinky Kitty" may be the highlights of the set with guitarist Jim Thomas ditching new-age auras for some serious, feedback-drenched excursions into the deep. But on the whole, the Mermen make music for AFTER you wipe out John Terlesky The Mermen, Marrow, 9 p.m.

Sunday, North Star Bar, 2639 W. Poplar Philadelphia, 215-684-0808. PERLA BATALLA: Heaven And Earth: The Mestiza Voyage (Mechuda Music) Perla Batatla. a farmer backup singer for Leonard Cohen voted amazon.com's best emerging artist in 1999, is on a mission to unite her heritage as a Latin Los Angeteno with that of her Mexican parents and that of their mythic ancestors. "Heaven And Earth: The Mestiza Voyage." another coUaboration with veteran producerwriter David Batteau, is a mixed-blood recording with mixed results.

Turtle Island (Celebrating)" has the saucy, satisfying groove of War's "Spill the Wine." But a diluted arrangement dampens the light samba of "Burning," Battaia sings robustly, visually. Yet she frequently forces her vocals, tying to squeeze square thoughts into round rhythms. She stretches her wings nicely, however, in the nppbng, deep-welled "Salvation. As a rynctst she ricochets across the universe, across the centuries. Sometimes she's a vivid poet then you appearLice a hummingbirdFor my More often, she collages smudged scraps all that's left is poetryThe touch of you a memoryThe candlelight is She'd be much more effective if real characters roamed her caves and cosmos.

When she and Batteau harmonize head and heart "Heaven And Earth" reminds me of Eliza Gikyson's 1989 recording "Legends Of Rainmaker," a favorite guilty pleasure. Geoff Gehman KRISTIN HERSH: Sunny Border Blue (4ADBeggars Banquet) When things get close to the bone, singer-songwriters tend to get self-conscious and retreat into fantasy or ladle out platitudes. Not Kristen Hersh. The onetime frontperson for Boston-based indie band Throwing Muses is unrelentingly forthcoming on her new solo disc. "Sunny Border Blue." No matter how high the ouch index, the sweet-voiced, vinegar-tongued Hersh lets the ache out whether it is purifying or cathartic seems of StrJe consequence.

For example, on "Your Dirty Answer," she is genuinely dismayed that having given up her vices does not entitle her to love. On "Spain," a mixture of serf loathing and rage, she confesses to her significant other. "I wanted you to sleep with her and hate yourself instead of me" On "Summer Salt" she longs for another chance to be "newborn clean," telling her partner "tor a toxic thing you smeN pretty." And on the sweetly anguished, somewhat vengeful "Candyland," Hersh sings about the child she lost custody of for a time: "I was bom with a sad song in my mouth and he gave me a reason to sing it" Faithless band members get their comeuppance in the hypnooc, funereal "Listenne," as do perfidious paramours in "White Suckers" were a match made in and Tkpside' dare you save my life, then to break my But Hersh never shrks responsibility tor her role as Performers representing air, earth, water and fire open 'Dralion' by Cirque du Soleil. The tour arrives in Philadelphia Sept 27. JEFF ZELEVANSKY Associated Press THE VALLEY'S Our everyday low Drice lor If you bring in this ad you i3 Off I Is Piftr VI i or usually even less.

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