ELEGY

Jean Genet was a 20th Century French writer. His life met with upheaval involving prostitution, theft, and imprisonment. Genet seemed to have a predilection for crime and homosexual eroticism (i wish to stress that i have no objection to the latter whatsoever), which illustrates itself in his choice of literary subject, often within strange, dark contexts and expressions.

Elegy is John Zorn's tribute to Genet, his inspiration the severe impression Genet's work has left on his soul. "Elegy is a fragile world of shadows, an underground where erotic perversion, flowers and crime co-exist", Zorn writes in the album's booklet. Elegy is also one of Zorn's file card releases. What does a file card piece entail? Well, from what i can gather, Zorn goes about writing ideas, thoughts, feelings that he gets from his subject matter down onto file cards, and arranges the cards into an order that pleases him. He then gathers his musicians (Zorn himself is not instrumentally present on Elegy) and records these ideas. After the recording has been done he ties all these moments of music together to create the final piece. As you can imagine, the result can end up rather sporadic, but if you're already pretty familiar with Zorn this will neither surprise your nor turn you away.

Despite the fact that Elegy does indeed display jumps into and out of chaos, it actually doesn't come across as a chaotic album, at least not in comparison to some of Zorn's other work. Due to the dark nature of Zorn's subject, Elegy is more shadowy and curious with outbursts of animalistic madness and lust every now and then, the more shadowy moments blending together easier. For me the album has an air of spirituality to it as well. There's an almost hypnotic (though i certainly don't wish to denote repetitiveness) abstraction about the album that conjures up thoughts of some probing adventure into the dark nether regions of consciousness; in search of what i'm not sure.

In the booklet, Zorn also writes how Genet's short film "Un Chant d'Amour" had a massive impact on him that changed his life forever. After watching the film myself on ubuweb the influence is very clear. Not only in the production of the film, but the music that accompanies it has elements that can be heard in Zorn's own music. This is, as you would expect, no more present on any album as it is on Elegy. Zorn has taken the vibe of Genet's film, arrangement and melodic ideas, and combined them with his own sound. However, i don't think this enlightens the album any more. It is an interesting insight into Zorn's influences, but as far as adding value to Elegy, i don't feel that.

My personal opinion of the album, after many listens, is that it is a very good album. When i first got it i was giddy with anticipation and my first listen was excitable. Then after a couple more spins the novelty wore off and i became a bit disappointed. I felt there wasn't much substance in it, nothing to really sink my teeth into and rejoice about. However, i was more than aware of the necessity for patience with music like this, and with each successive spin i grew to the album a little bit more. I believe i've now reached a plateau where i appreciate the album as an excursion into the dark perversions of the mind, and while it doesn't blow me away or give me a "wow" factor, i still enjoy listening to it. It's not what i would recommend to somebody new to Zorn, and it's not an essential album, but for the already established Zorn fans reading this it's definitely worth your money.