John Zorn - Six Litanies for Heliogabalus
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Artist: John ZornEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2007-03-27
Music Label: Tzadik
Soundtracks:
- Litany, Pt. 1
- Litany, Pt. 2
- Litany, Pt. 3
- Litany, Pt. 4
- Litany, Pt. 5
- Litany, Pt. 6
Free Music Notes for Six Litanies for Heliogabalus
Free Music Review: Beyond expectations.
Hit: 5 Stars
In the liner notes to Moonchild, Zorn asserts that record is the "first realization of a project that has been gestating for over three years", a combination of composition and improvisation in a rock format. For that record, he assembled a trio to record freewheeling avant-hardcore sort of stuff-- vocalist Mike Patton, bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer Joey Baron. The music on both Moonchild and Astronome was fierce and powerful yet somehow quite agile. It also set expectations for "Six Litanies for Heliogalabus", the third record in this series, but this one is entirely different.
Augmenting the Moonchild trio with the composer on alto sax, Jamie Saft on organ, Ikue Mori on laptop electronics, and a trio of female vocalists (Martha Cluver, Abby Fischer and Kirsten Sollek) serving as a chorus, "Six Litanies..." is significantly more than its predecessors, in many ways, it's the culmination of Zorn's work (barring Masada) over the past few years.
Trading with the hardcore of Moonchild (with Zorn and occasionally Saft joining in to augment) are passages of exotica-tinged organ music reminiscent of the work on The Gift (one could just hear how Ribot would wail over the top of parts of this), haunting, droning sounds with whispered vocals not unlike parts of IAO: Music In Sacred Light and interspersed vocal chorus passages that could have been lifted straight from "Frammenti del Sappho" from last year's Mysterium. It's quite a shock when the explosive hardcore sounds yield to a three-part, sustained, wordless vocal, with nothing but a flutter from Ikue Mori to signal the transition, but like the best of Zorn's work, it all fits together. It all flows from part to part and piece to piece, and throughout, Zorn seems to get nothing but stunning performances out of his musicians (including an extended solo voice performance from Patton on "Litany IV" where he pulls out everything from sounds of vomiting to screeches, screams, chirping, blowing and even some downright fantastic falsetto singing).
A couple quick notes about the presentation-- this record just sounds fantastic-- Zorn produced himself and brought in Bill Laswell on the mix and both did a fantastic job. The CD is housed in a small hard cardstock envelope contained as part of a mini-LP sleeve with the artwork displaying rose petals on a white background. It's actually quite a nice looking product.
There's a lot to love here-- Zorn and Patton's call and response at the beginning of "Litany II", Zorn leading Dunn and Baron on a freewheeling improv that ranks among the best of his frantic work on "Litany V" (where somehow all the elements of the rest of the record seem to come together), Saft just wailing on exotica sounds throughout the record, or the downright haunting droning organ and whispered vocals in "Litany III" are the best examples that come to mind. And really it makes for quite a listen, constantly unexpected and intriguing. If you like your music adventerous, this one's for you. Highly recommended.
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