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.
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