John Zorn- Psychomagia (2014)

John Zorn- Psychomagia (2014)

Sometimes is hard, although it’s becoming regular to talk about a John Zorn record, in which he doesn’t play, such is the case with Psychomagia, one of Zorn recent effort that doesn’t include him among the players, but it`s definitely a product of his inspiration, as Zorn composes and arranges every tune here, and what a great job has Zorn done here, Psychomagia is a great entering in Zorn`s discography, full of extreme volume music, intense playing, full of surprises and crazy stuff included here, it’s great to find Zorn, one of my musical idols, getting in touch with Alejandro Jodorowsky, another artist I truly admire, and his artistic legacy, Psychomagia precisely is the term that defines some of Jodo`s work, an intense magical-scientific approach created to “cure” people`s mind and soul, helping one to recover from the psychic wounds of our early lives.

Zorn compositions are powerful and highly complex, some of them very well grounded on the work of people like Ennio Morricone, Carl Stalling and Ornette Coleman, since theme one, Metapsychomagia, we get all of these elements in full display, we get Morricone dissonant and “twangy” arrangements, greatly executed by the prominent guitars of Aram Eajakian and Eyal Maoz, with both six strings vibrating in a transcendental way, sometimes reaching the ethereal, the Carl Stalling influenced work of drummer Kenny Grohowski who keeps things moving at a maniac pace, changing the game almost every second, keeping the players in a constant state of turmoil, and then you got the leading bass of Shanir Ezra Elumenkranz, who might be a great representing of the harmolodics of the GREAT Ornette Coleman, all together displaying a perfect understanding of Zorn`s chaotic musical vision of the world, sometimes well versed on the complexity of Judaic music, and sometimes full of pulverizing impulses, as the band truly plays hard, at full volume and exhibiting amazing dissonant sounds.

Zorn knowledge of sound is more amicably displayed on Sacred Emblems, a beautiful theme full of shiny and detailed sounds greatly played by both guitarists, the song is short, but it give us a fresh breath of air before the crunching distortion of Circe, the powerful drumming of Grohowski is enormous here, displayed along the titanic bass rumbling of Elumenkranz, giving the song the feel of being something out of The Melvins book of songs, with a disorienting dialogue between both guitarist, much in the way old free jazz players used to do, this and the stellar rhythm section defines this song as a tremendous extreme music anthem for the new era, conceived in the mind of a genius like Zorn, who might be stepping aside from his sax playing in order to achieve a more wide influence in the world of music, not as a musician, but as a composer in the whole sense of the word.

Squaring the Circle with its tremolo guitars has some surf music influence, it sounds like “beach” music, but not exactly a Californian one, perhaps one in the middle east, again, the heritage of the players comes to the front as the powerful influence of the orient shows strongly throughout the song, with GREAT string arrangements and again the impressive drumming skills of Grohowski shinning all over the place.

There`s great extreme music showing in Celestrial Mechanism, creating a powerful musical dimensional that few players would dare to enter, the jarring Evocation of the Triumphent Beast, in which Coleman influence is quite evident, and more placid tunes of great beauty like The Nameless God and Anima Mundi, which give the record a tremendous balanced approach perfectly understood from someone like the perfectionist Zorn, who, here, in spirit only shows why he is a master in the art of sounds, and why such high calibers of musicians are committed to his amazing musical vision.