Published on Feb 20, 1998
It’s not often a disc leaves me speechless… for the wrong
reasons.
As open-minded as I try to be about music genres I don’t know
much about, there are times that the product leaves me scratching
my head and asking, “What the hell was
that
?!?” Experimental improvisational musicians Joseph Jarman
& Leroy Jenkins have done this to me with their recent
collaboration
Out Of The Mist, a disc that is quite painful to listen to
at times.
I don’t know why these two musicians have been pigeonholed as
“new age”; I don’t even know what category they accurately fall
under. More of a tonal headache than anything else, they take the
spirit of new age music and crush it under the weight of their own
idealistic plans.
Oh, sure, there are moments that stand out as exceptional – but
they don’t reveal themselves until the second spin of the disc.
“Opening” is one such track, a mixture of kalimba (or thumb piano),
chime and penny whistle (which is provided by Lindsey Horner – she
also plays the bass) takes a bit of time to get used to. Once
you’re in the mood, it almost sounds like something you’d hear deep
in Tibet, and is often pretty. Likewise, the album’s closer “Chant”
has some interesting moments as voices, chimes and gongs blend in
to create a spiritual tone.
But often the downfall of
Out Of The Mist is the pairing of instruments that don’t
belong together played with no idea where the tune is going.
“Hands” features Jenkins on harmonica – and the resulting cacophony
made me long for some semblance of musical order. Somehow, mixing
the harmonica with lsan, cowbells and piano just doesn’t work…
not in this case.
Maybe more of the problem with
Out Of The Mist is the fact it sounds like it was recorded
without a musical script. Jarman and Jenkins tend to deviate from
any chordal structure often – worse yet, they seem to revel in the
dischordance they produce. “Prayer At Sea” could have been such a
wonderful track, but often the Peruvian clay flute (Jarman), voice
(Jenkins) and piano (provided by Myra Melford) sound like they’re
playing three different songs at once. “Riding Currents” features
viola and bass clarinet, both sounding as if they have different
objectives in the song. This is not art… this is madness.
No doubt there are some people to whom this might appeal to, but
anyone who turns to this disc expecting new age music a la Yanni –
or even jazz a la Thelonious Monk – are going to be in for one hell
of a disappointment… not that Yanni would have been any
better.
It would be easy to sit at the keyboard and take potshots at
Out Of The Mist, but the music speaks for itself much louder
than any criticism I could level at it. Jarman and Jenkins are near
legends in ambient jazz – too bad this disc isn’t anything close to
music.