MOG

John Zorn – Astronome CD

Personnel: John Zorn; Mike Patton (vocals); Trevor Dunn (bass instrument); Joey Baron (drums).

Recording information: 2006.

John Zorn's work has always been difficult to categorize and describe, and has only become more so as the musical iconoclast has pushed and developed the boundaries of his compositional ability. 2006's complex, original, and utterly remarkable ASTRONOME is another landmark of innovation for Zorn. Inspired by an unfinished collaboration of the same title by avant-gardists Antonin Artaud and Edgard Varese, Zorn's ASTRONOME consists of three "acts" (each of which contains "scenes") that amount to a mini-opera of intense, often shocking, sonic dimensions. Zorn wrote, arranged, and conducted the music, which is performed by drummer Joey Baron, bassist Trevor Dunn, and vocalist Mike Patton. Jazz, classical, rock, free improvisation, and Zorn's inimitable stamp combine in this brilliant work that must be heard to be believed.

1. Act One, Scene 1: A Secluded Clearing in the Woods/Scene
2. 2: A ... 2. Act Two, Scene 1: A Mediaeval Laboratory/Scene
3. 2: In the Magick Circle 3. Act Three, Scene 1: A Barren Plain at Midnight/Scene 2: An Unnamed ...

"Astronome" is the second album by the band John Zorn assembled to record "Moonchild"-- vocalist Mike Patton, bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer Joey Baron. But this time the concept is slightly different, Zorn was challenged by Richard Foreman to compose an opera in vocalese and came up with something altogether unexpected. Not for the feint of heart, "Astronome" is, even for Zorn, quite a challenge.

As any opera, "Astronome" is apparently designed to tell a story, although you'd be hard pressed without the included libretto (more on that in a minute) to make heads or tails of it, the music is very visual. On first listen, it appears to be pretty much an endlessly aggressive slice of Zorn-avant-hardcore, but the more I've listened to it, the more it's revealed itself to be startlingly diverse. While it is indeed dominated by fierce sections, there's quite a bit of oddly melodic and intriguing portions here-- for example about thirteen minutes into "Act Two", after building to frantic heights, the music settles into a fine groove and maintains a gentle atmosphere pretty much until the end of the track with Dunn's playing both deep in a groove and at times downright pastoral in sound.

This isn't to say, mind you, there isn't a healthy dose of noise and explosiveness-- Dunn's bass is distorted more often than not and Patton's range of vocal textures seem to emphasize a sense of franticness and torment more than anything else.

One thing of note is the packaging of this record-- contained in a small box, the CD is accompanied by two booklets-- one with a set of liner notes by Zorn the other a libretto for the album, with photographs accompanying each "scene" in the opera. It's really quite a fine package.

As a whole, while I found "Astronome" to be an interesting record with a lot of great material to offer, I've found it a bit less intriguing than "Moonchild" and haven't been coming back to it as consistently as I do with a lot of Zorn's other albums. Having said that, it's got a lot to offer and I'm curious whether my opinion of it will change over time-- there's an underpinning of subtlety here that isn't obvious on first dozen listens or so that I've noted as of late that I wonder if it will blossom into something more (as "The Gift" did for me).

Forget the above: This album is f**king insane. You need to hear it to believe it.

You can find this in the shop at http://www.ironmanrecords.co.uk or for a direct url try http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Iron-Man-shop