Search - Yamataka Eye, John Zorn :: 50th Birthday Celebration 10

Eye-Zorn ascending to the heavens

Mr. Richard K. Weems | Fair Lawn, NJ USA | 11/16/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I hold to my standard that John Zorn is truly at his best when he collaborates with other artists. My favorite works of his have been with Painkiller, Hemophiliac and during his various duets. And these have been true collaborations, I think, rather than something like what occurs in the game pieces, where it is more of John Zorn in control of improvisation. Zorn's truest collaborations are when his talent mixes and struggles and combines with the creative and improvisational talents of other artists to create something that is not wholly Zorn, but a mixture of Zorn and other things. Painkiller was, of course, a mixture of Zorn jigsaw with low-end ambience and death metal sensibilities (pretty obvious, once you consider the Zorn-Harris-Laswell casting). Hemophiliac had Ikue Mori's electronic dissonance mixing against methodical Zorn noise with the pure insanity of Patton's throat.



And among the canon of Zorn duets, none have ever been as potent as Eye and Zorn--nothing more consistently potent in the entire Zorn canon, if you ask me. From the select offerings on the Naked City soundtrack to _Heretic_, to the live offerings in the Painkiller days, to the NaniNani's and now to this recording from the month-long Zorn 50th birthday celebration, Zorn and Eye are justly described on the obi notes as being mystics, for the dissonant and resonant chaos and insanity both provide to the music process do not chafe against each other, but instead stack atop into a transcendant reality beyond anything man has been able to comprehend. Yamatsuka/Yamantaka/Yamataka Eye has transformed with his band Boredoms from a wild, playful band of quick-stop punk noise to metaphysical, psychedelic perscussion to receive his mystical street cred. John Zorn has played with enough Jewish mysticism to get his wizard stripes, and the effect is noticeable here as much as with any of their releases.



What probably makes Zorn-Eye duets so astounding to me is the most simple spirit of pure play involved. Hakim Bey, in his wonderful essays on art, describe the essence of play as artistic for a most serious purpose. That does not mean, of course, that the play has to be serious in intent, but without play, art has little immediate appeal. Zorn and Eye keep a thorough sense of the true purpose of play in this disc. The first two tracks, especially, are full of the stuff that keep the collaborations of these two legendary. For this performance, Sawai Taeji lends a hand with electronics, and Fred Frith steps in for a track, but the focus is, of course, Zorn and Eye. From Sanders-inspired horn bleats and toots to voice giddiness and electronic play, this disc will maintain the high standard of noise for those afficianados, and if you've never heard these guys at work before, be forewarned that what will follow will not be immediately recognizeable to any sensibility, but learn to trust it, for these two will take you on a journey beyond the realm of any conventional music--just bring your funny bone.

"

Powerful improvisations.

Michael Stack | North Chelmsford, MA USA | 05/10/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Whereas the studio efforts from John Zorn and Yamataka Eye tend to be rather laid back affairs, teetering on ambient, this record is not. Recorded during the now legendary September 2003 month of Zorn shows at Tonic, Zorn (alto sax) and Eye (vocals, electronics), joined by technician Sawai Taeji (who I'm guessing is responsible for much of the noise synthesis) and on one track, guitarist Fred Frith (who performed earlier that day) produce a record of abstract, noisy improvisation.



Eye is pretty heavily immersed in electronics, at times it sounds like he's running his voice into some kind of synth because the sound has a largely humanistic shape to it, although at times its the sort of standard Eye ranting, bleating, screaming, rambling gig. Zorn is all over, as he often is during the duet sets from the birthday shows, pulling out all sorts of elements from his seemingly endless bag of tricks. Of particular power is the second track ("M.S.T.G.L.") and the piece that adds Frith ("Sun See Soon"), both really reach levels of extraordinary heights.



This is not an album for those not familiar with Zorn's sort of improvisational forms, while more often than not, there is a strong structure here, its not likely to be the sort of thing most people are used to hearing. Still, for those interested in this sort of thing, this is a good record."