QUOTES about the work

"The gorgeously eclectic sound design, by Elise Kermani, often seems to play from far away - now a tango, now a marching band - hinting at worlds beyond the one directly in front of us."
                   ∼ Siobhan Burke, Dance Magazine

"Elise Kermani's sound collage - switching between a crackling fire, drums, a marching band, chimes, ray guns - both exacerbates the fragmentation and corrals it. A country-western song near the end binds together the dance's most cohesive moment, though each dancer is doing his or her own thing."
                    ∼Brian Seibert, The New York Times

"JOCASTA is a stunning example of how original and diverse independent film making can, and should be."
                  ∼ Dan Angeloro, New Roots Project

"Kermani's music blows through the dance like a changeable wind delivering heavy chords, high dissonant tones, chimes, a piano melody, the patter of distant drums…"
                  ∼ Deborah Jowitt, The New York Times

"Elise Kermani's music and sound design compliment the pitch-perfect atmospheric work of her follow collaborators with hinting sounds seeping in and out of my awareness...the work visually, physically, and sonically treads the point of losing consciousness...we are all pulled into that moment between waking and drifting into sleep where multiple selves might appear and recede, and time and space observe different rules."
                  ∼ Maura Donohue, The Culturebot

"This vibrant anthology...DICE captures something wild, primal, and outside the world of male-dominated musical catagories"
                   ∼ Kyle Gann, The Village Voice

"Elise Kermani's compelling sound score…sounds like someone is playing a harmonica while slowly crushing it in a grip vice, a texture I find thrilling."
                  ∼ Theodore Bale, Dance Source Houston

"The collaborative effort between various artists creates a visually striking film rich in sound textures and layers of images and language."
                  ∼ Peter Biskind, executive director of Film Columbia Festival

"The quiet tickings and vibrations, the tinkle of breaking glass, and the flashes of Chopin piano music in Kermani's score enhance the fragility of Repair's atmosphere - that of a world out of kilter in which the rational and the irrational make poetry together."
                  ∼ Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice

"…a vivid sonic atmosphere…"
                   ∼ Allan Kozinn, The New York Times

"… Not surprisingly, the work least reliant on novelty proved the most attractive. In the folk/New Age-style "Shuffling, Shivering," composer Elise Kermani sang her own ingenuous text over a relatviely static electronic background and Harry Gilbert's sensitive cello playing. Engaging, too, was Kermani's "Spiral" in which computed-altered words accompanied Renee Tinnell's erotic dance movements. …"
                   ∼ Terry McQuilkin The Los Angeles Times

"…Brooding vocalist Elise Kermani is one of the most haunting and original new voices on the New York scene.…"
                   ∼ Kyle Gann, The Village Voice

"…Artem(Is) Rising was visually and acoustically compelling...words floating in darkness...simultaneous spoken English phrases created a kinetic tower of Babel.…"
                   ∼ Ann Sargent-Wooster, P-Form

"…For the fullest sound and vision integration, Elise Kermani's Artem(Is) Rising delves deep into greek myth; the Bible and Koran's views of women; major symbolism...with the help of 77 Hz., her production kicks into a higher plane of tech-theater…"
                   ∼ Carl VP Groome, Your Flesh