One of the keys to Mikel Rouse's fearlessly pioneering personality is that, when he was in third grade, he permanently changed the spelling of his first name Michael to Mikel - but they're pronounced just the same. Growing up in rural Missouri and moving to New York to be a rocker in the late '70s, Rouse (b. 1957) is one of the premiere younger composers to fuse rock and classical conventions. His music unfolds in geometric patterns of complex layers of rhythm, yet each layer by itself is so simple, with such an infectious beat, that you don't hear the complexity unless you're looking for it.

Rouse is best known now for his operas, which in Downtown tradition are not traditionally operatic at all - no fat ladies or love duets here. His first was Failing Kansas, based on the murder that forms the subject of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. The piece used a technique Rouse calls "counterpoetry," in which several overdubbed versions of his voice go through the lyrics in rhythmic counterpoint. Tuneful as that piece was, it is far less spectacular than his next major work, Dennis Cleveland, an opera in the form of a talk show. Rouse watched hundreds of hours of talk shows to develop the libretto. He himself stars as the host, Dennis, while the other singers stand and sing (or more often, speak in rhythm) from the audience. It's an amazing play on the unreality of TV reality.

Some of my favorite Rouse songs are found on the counterpoetry disc Living Inside Design. Rouse writes his own lyrics, and has a bracing way of evoking American life in just a few well-repeated words. - Kyle Gann

Soul Menu, New Tone nt 6716 - exhilarating music for his Broken Consort ensemble

Living Inside Design, New Tone nt 6724- these counterpoetry songs will get under your skin

Failing Kansas, New Tone nt 6740 2

Dennis Cleveland, New World 80506-2

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