Athlantis
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Free Music Notes for Athlantis
Free Music Review: Eyvind Kang's "Athlantis"
Hit: 5 Stars
Eyvind Kang's "Athlantis" is a colourful creation weaving threads from choral and orchestral soundscapes. An aural essence that sounds both holy and haunting, inspired by arcane medieval texts from French hymnologist Marbod of Rennes, and Italian heretical philosopher Giordano Bruno. Athlantis includes operatic gymnastics from virtuoso vocalists Mike Patton and Jessika Kenney, among an incredible chorus of singers and musicians recorded live at Italy's Angelica and l'Altro Suono Festival during May 2006. Eyvind Kang has established himself as an enigmatic composer capable of exposing musical traditions that are glorious and triumphant.Free Music Review: Very problematic
Hit: 3 Stars
What we've got here is arcane Medieval texts by the burned-at-the-stake heretic Giordano Bruno appropriated as neo-Gregorian chant by that musical mercurialist, Evyind Kang.
Hmmmm.
OK. I know Evyind Kang, a musician for whom I have the greatest respect, is probably mainly concerned with the aural soundscape that emerges from the implementation and manipulation of these texts, but what about their intrinsic meaning? Can we just set that aside? Do we give Kang a free pass in selecting obscure Medieval texts of an, admittedly, heretical nature? Do we just wave a wand over this rank obscurantism? Or do we take him to task? What ARE his purposes? Is this some kind of arcane deconstruction of the West? I'd say so.
So what? A fair question. Does it matter that artists purvey their own idiosyncratic visions, laying waste 2000 years of Western hegemony? Certainly, they are free to do so. That's what's great about the West and not so great about, say, Islam. But let's at least be aware of what's going on here.
Me, I'm struggling to sign on with this project from a number of standpoints. First, I don't think it really succeeds from a purely musical perspective: There's just too much aural preciousness for my tastes. More importantly, as an exercise in Western philosophico/musical deconstructionism, it seems rather strained: really, was Giordano Bruno all that compelling a figure in the history of the West? Do we really want to dredge up quasi-Galileo problematics today? Apparently, some do. More power to them, but I demure. Thirdly, can a figure as marginalized as Bruno bear the weight Kang assigns him? I think not.
My considered opinion is that this is not one of Kang's more successful ventures. Nevertheless, do check out his other forays into postmodern musical madness.
Free Music Review: Kang music
Hit: 4 Stars
Eyvind Kang is indeed enigmatic. His first release on Tzadik, 7 NADEs, was a blizzard of sound, from noise to jazz to French lyrics. His followup, Theater of Mineral NADEs, was a little more partitioned, but still a great mix of styles, from ancient rhythms to reggae. From there, he has done work with Secret Chiefs 3 (check out Second Grand Constitution and Bylaws, Hurqalya if you want to hear Secret Chiefs 3 at their Kang best), the Bill Frisell quartet, and seems to play any kind of music invented (and then some).
But all in all, Kang seems to be the most modern kind of composer--not one who is trying to revive European traditions or fight entropy and try to revive classical traditions by inventing some new style he can talk about on the lecture circuit, but takes the essences of music around him, whether it be Zornian noise or simple rhythms; this in confirmed in this recording, a cycle of choral and orchestral music that feels more fresh and accesible than many other academic classical music nowadays.
What I love most about Kang is his sense of earnestness, even when doing something as strange as The Visible Sign of the Invisible Order, for any kind of music needs such focused, immediate effort. Mike Patton contributes his voice to this project, though don't expect to hear anything like his Hemophiliac work, and maybe Patton's voice stands out a little too easily from the other choral work here, but Kang clearly has a sense of control here, a sound that is more contemporary than backward-looking.
Maybe not a toe-tapper, but let's face it--if you're a fan of Eyvind Kang, and I'm talking ALL of Eyvind Kang, from Dying Ground to The Story of Iceland to Sweetness of Sickness, you must not be expecting anything terribly familiar. This is Kang music, and I love to sit back and let this guy tell me with every recording what that really means.