THE HERMETIC ORGAN VOLUME 11 - FOR TERRY RILEY

The eleventh volume of John Zorn's improvised organ live album sequence took place in San Francisco's Grace Cathedral as part of a concert series celebrating the composer's seventieth birthday. A large crowd of Zorn's closest family, friends, and colleagues were present for his performance, making it a rather special installment. It is also a special volume as it is inspired by and dedicated to Terry Riley, a pioneering composer of minimalism in the jazz and classical worlds, and one of Zorn's biggest inspirations and most important mentors.

The first piece, "A New Door Opens" begins with bell tones, gently waking up the listener and drawing attention to themselves before fading into proper organ tones. From the moment the bells cease Zorn launches into an intense series of buildups and cluster chords that rise and fall constantly, punctuated only by the occasional wind chimes. These extended buildups are often made up of just a handful of notes and take so long to get to where they're going that one's ears becomes accustomed to the drone and it's easy to get lost, wondering when the note(s) will end, or if they ever even started. Across multiple minutes Zorn constructs chords comprised of semitones that pulse in the ear, and he often plays them so loudly that it's unbearable. I found myself thankful for the breath of fresh air provided by those wind chime moments - having something to focus on that's actually moving and changing. It almost ends up feeling like a Swans album for solo organ, an equally bizarre, repulsive, and morbidly intriguing proposition.

The performance must certainly have been a special moment for Zorn, and the improvised pieces he made during it are certainly impressive and academically intriguing, but even at my most generous I couldn't call this a particularly listenable album.

Track Rating: A New Door Opens (6), Elissa's Tears (6).

Overall Rating: 6/10, or, 3 Stars.