Taking a multicultural route with Cage ‘ragas’

John Cage, born 95 years ago in Los Angeles, attended L.A. High and Pomona College and studied with Schoenberg at USC and UCLA. Then, as the most peripatetic composer the world had yet known, he became a citizen of the globe.

So maybe it makes sense that not L.A., not New York (Cage’s home base for most of his adult life), but Milan, Italy, has offered the biggest celebration of this Cage anniversary -- a drawn-out festival that began in September and ended Sunday. And maybe it also makes a funny kind of sense that the one L.A. event marking Cage’s birthday, as well as the 15th anniversary of his death, came by way of Milan. And India. And Berlin.

Amelia Cuni -- an Italian singer trained in the Indian traditions of dhrupad singing and kathak dance and now a vocalist and composer living in the German capital -- has made a fascinating multicultural Cage evening out of some pretty vague material. She calls the presentation “18 Microtonal Ragas,” and she performed it at REDCAT on Thursday night.

The “ragas” -- Cage himself put the name of the Indian improvisational form in quotes -- are taken from Solo 58 of “Song Books,” an anthology of 90 pieces that include unconventional vocal solos and theatrical actions inspired by Satie and Thoreau. Among the scores are a map of Concord, Mass., and various graphs. Among the texts are anarchist screeds. Among the instructions are a directive to go offstage at normal speed and hurry back. Among the sounds are a recording of a forest fire. Cooking spaghetti is a permissible action. Cage once described the collection as resembling a brothel.

Cuni’s approach was chaste. Solo 58 consists of charts of pitches from which the singer can select as she pleases. Singing may be free vocalization, and improvised drumming may be added. Think of morning, noon or night, Cage advised in the brief instructions, and of recent pleasures or beauties noticed.

It was far too easy Thursday to gather what Cuni’s accomplices -- a flashy tabla player (Federico Sanesi), a bland percussionist on traps (Raymond Kaczynski) and a guy running unimaginative drones and electronic effects from a laptop (Werner Durand) -- thought: They did obvious and predictable things. Cage asked for American independence; they offered European conformity and tended toward coordination.

But Cuni is a marvel. She made from minimal ingredients an arresting meal. She added, as spice, other solos from “Song Books,” such as the going offstage and hurrying back (Solo 32). She assumed a position of immobility (57) by lying on a platform and keeping silent (and thankfully shutting up her collaborators as well) for some seconds. She wrote notes on paper (71). She took her shoes off and put them on (78).

She did all of this with riveting theatrical presence, enhanced by interesting, presumably chance-derived, lighting effects. She also danced elegantly.

But Cuni’s singing is what should make her a sensation in various new, world, experimental and alternative music scenes. She is essentially an Indian vocalist with Italian flair, theatricality and technique. This is a new kind of hybrid singing, and it is stunning.

Many of her solos sounded like bite-size traditional ragas gone slightly astray, especially when odd texts were thrown in. Hers is a huge array of vocal effects impressively disciplined. The ragas were not quite of India, not quite of Thoreau’s Concord or anyplace else. They seemed more from an Asian subcontinent that is everywhere.

She recited texts about the nature of Indian music through Indian music by way of Cage’s pitches. She sustained notes for mesmerizing, breath-stopping periods. Her voice danced, her body sang -- or something like that. She was sometimes loudly amplified, and electronics were used to alter her voice. But the computer seemed far less versatile or interesting than her vocal cords.

An excellent CD document of Cuni’s performance of “18 Microtonal Ragas” has just been released on Other Minds Records.

mark.swed@latimes.com