Loren MazzaCane Connors Meditations On the Ascension of Blind Joe Death Vol. 1 (with Christina Carter)

[Ecstatic Yod; 2005]

Rating: 4/5

Styles: avant-garde, experimental, improvisational, blues
Others: Tony Conrad, Alan Licht, Phillip Glass, Son House, John Fahey, Derek Bailey


How aptly the tracks on this album are titled: several each of "Smoke" and "Mirrors." This album is a study in obfuscation, challenging the listener's usually relaxed perceptions; the harder you look, the less certain you are of what's even there. The album superficially sounds like vacuity-of-space ambient, propelling itself forwarded via little more than seemingly unconscious perturbations. As with 2001: A Space Odyssey or Pi, the quietude and serenity enables time to stretch out beyond recollection, if you're not hyper-vigilant, and you'll find that not nearly as much time has passed as you may have thought. But, if you find yourself studying this album, hanging on every note's blooming, you'll be struck by the still and studied beauty of the music. You'll see the natural way that it steadily progresses, the slow but determined growth of a budding flower. Furthermore, you'll be refreshed by it, and it'll be over before you know it. But logically, none of it seems to make sense. Revisiting any experience in your mind will be outside the scope of your critical faculties. All you'll know is that a pleasant sirocco of sparsely plunked piano and space-fuzzed guitar swept over you, and hopefully left a smile on your face.

1. Smoke pt. 1
2. Smoke pt. 2
3. Smoke pt. 3
4. Smoke pt. 4
5. Smoke pt. 5
6. Smoke pt. 6
7. Smoke pt. 7
8. Mirrors pt. 1
9. Mirrors pt. 2
10. Mirrors pt. 3
11. Mirrors pt. 4
12. Mirrors pt. 5

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