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.

JOHN ZORN's vast canon of avant-garde sounds is daunting if you happen to take a quick glimpse at his discography as a whole. As of 2019 he has released no less than 145 albums of disparate genres ranging from his more familiar avant-garde jazz motifs to highly experimental rock and chamber orchestral music to even grindcore. After introducing the world to his unique hyperactive form of saxophone squawking that fires off like an AK-47 during a road rage incident somewhere in the USA at any given moment, ZORN quickly proved to be quite prolific in not only his own incessant studio output but also as a collaborator with like-minded weirdos who apparently have nothing better to do than dream up and record the most bizarre musical expressions in the known universe.

While ZORN is mondo bizarro in his own right, add a couple members of Mr Bungle and i'm talking Mike Patton with Trey Spruance (penned here merely as "Scummy") and you are sure to have more fun than a barrel of monkeys dressed in drag and heading to Mardis Gras and enough weirdness to scare the bejesus out of Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa AND the Gerogerigegege for good measure. ZORN found a bit of notoriety as Patton's object of obsession and main inspiration and appeared on the first Mr Bungle album. Striking up a friendship only music freaks could ever understand, the two became best buds and Patton as a reciprocity, ZORN featured Patton on many of his own music works with this album ELEGY being one of the first.

While ZORN flooded the 80s with a series of avant-garde jazz releases in 1988 he created the experimental rock band Naked City and released a few albums under that moniker but starting with ELEGY he was back to solo releases, well sort of. While released as a bona fide ZORN album, this album of classical chamber music mixed with avant-garde jazz and the occasional drifting into everything from dark ambient and turntable music to even throat singing and choral chants follows in the footsteps of ZORN's 1987 album "Cuba" where he contributes no instrumental playing at all and instead steps back and provides the role of organizer and producer. Existing in an avant-garde playground of its own atonal and dissonant making, ELEGY showcases the talents of other musicians all united under the JOHN ZORN banner.

This album was dedicated to Jean Genet who was a French novelist, playwright, essayist and political activist whose main time in the spotlight was roughly from the 50s on. Equally known for his criminal activities as well as homosexual promiscuity (he was once a prostitute even), Genet provides the perfect subject matter for this dark terrorizing tribute in four pieces that each have a color as a title. Part avant-garde jazz and part 20th century classical mixed with strange outbursts of decibel maximizing after creepy acoustic build ups, ELEGY finds David Abel (viola), Barbara Chaffe (alto flute, bass flute), David Shea (turntables), David Susser (effects), Trey Spruance (as Scummy on guitar), William Winant (drums) and Mike Patton on vocals creating some extremely challenging musical motifs and yes this is defiantly some sort of music although it sounds like music from an alternative universe.

The four tracks, "Blue," "Yellow," "Pink" and "Black" all exude their own haunting charm but are quite varied in how they squirm around from mutated chamber orchestral music to freaky vocal perversions that remind me of Patton's avant-garde freakery on albums like "Pranzo Oltranzista." This is truly creepy music with unsettled flutes, violas and effects building up ghostly soundscapes that are sometimes accompanied by heavy breathing, sometimes ethnic tribal chants, throat singing or whatever Mr Patton can conjure up at the moment. Likewise the percussion and guitar strive to be as far outside of the box as possible and the scant few moments of recognizable music come from tribal drum circle type motifs but usually clamor on in bizarre irregular and often jittery cymbal abuse and jazzy interludes from the most avant-garde sector of the universe.

ELEGY, much like Genet's life, is a startling reality. Unnerving avant-garde musical scales create an unresolved feeling but in a quiet placid state of mind only to be unpredictably interrupted by cacophonous outbursts of drumming frenzies, turntables gone wild as well as all the instruments just completely freaking out totally. This would be one of many collaborations between ZORN and Patton but perhaps this is one of the most interesting as the dynamics are haphazard and the album definitely achieves the alienation effect without coming across as forced. This really seems like a series of compositions that are being expressed in some completely extraterrestrial tradition. While this album defiantly flaunts its avant-garde mastery unapologetically, the album is quite intricately designed and showcases ZORN's unique contributions to the world of avant-garde and experimental rock outside the context of his more usual comfort zone as sax squawker on speed.