Flowers of Hell - O (Optical Sounds)

Arranged from improvisations and recorded in one take, The Flowers of Hell’s newest release O feels like staring deeply into a milky gemstone of shape and colour. Among the swells of string and lonely trumpet, a single drifting tone evolves and reforms in the light. Respecting the law of the circle, there is no beginning or end to the piece and the meditative atmosphere is both soothing and unsettling, like something by Ligeti, only less dissonant.

For all of this however, O is stagnant and kind of tedious when compared to the epic travels of their first album Come Hell or High Water (2009). Artistic musings aside, it is essentially forty five minutes of slow moving, rhythmless ambience – mildly intriguing in construction it’s just… nothing… really… happens. The group director, Greg Jarvis, wasn’t wrong when he called it “Business Suicide”. Is forty five minutes of droning art music worth shelling out on?

Aside from the recording itself, the CD contains videos of the group performing O and four other tracks at gigs in Toronto and Prague. This is its raison d'être, otherwise the recording is geared up to be just another victim of stream and run. Watching Flowers from Hell perform is a sumptuous experience, most acoustic gigs are. It reveals much of the bands wonder: their eclectic and textured use of instruments and a strong group connection that borderlines on the paranormal. The record was born out a very simple, almost Zen-like plan imbibing the aim of German absolute music: “music that is not explicitly about anything, music that simply is”.

Despite ongoing snobbery and its stodgy stigma, the vast range of Classical Music will forever provide material for the right minds. The Flowers of Hell’s kind of Space Rock/Post Rock/Neo-Classical (classification overload) suggests a relation to the divine Godspeed You! Black Emperor who combine the grand compositional techniques of the Modern Avant-garde with the nihilism and riff basis of Rock. There have been many contenders but until discovering Flowers of Hell I’ve not heard a band that carries on this visionary style with such courage. There are a lot of phonies and tourists in the art music world, hung up on THE IMAGE or THE IDEA of making intellectual or groundbreaking music. By sharing the stage and their projects with other musicians, Flowers of Hell appear to be free of this self delusion (Come Hell or High Water featured musicians from Bat For Lashes, Broken Social Scene, Spiritualised and Spacemen 3 to name but a few).

The idea behind O is compelling enough to warrant a listen. It completes its task of being anyway (heh heh). But in the end, it only serves as a blank canvass for future possibilities. Being their first solo record, it makes me curious as to what their next project will be and who it will be with. All I ask is that they hold on to their edgy quality against a demanding environment for “relaxing” Classical music. So no pressure guys.

(© Copyright 2010 Brendan Morgan)

Edward Williams - Life On Earth Soundtrack

Initially aired in 1979, the soundtrack to the David Attenburough nature programme Life On Earth has taken this long to be brought out of the dusty BBC archives. The seasoned composer Edward Williams (1921) paints, through music, the alien beauty and magic of our natural world. Let me tell you, they don’t make art music like this anymore, even under the Classical title. Contemporary TV composers aim towards film bombasity ignoring the smaller, delicate ensemble. William’s eccentricity and instrumental range is impressive and it’s emergence into general distribution is artistic justice in action.

There are many familiarities in the record and like most soundtracks, it attempts to evoke mood – in this case, our curiosity and wonderment with nature. It’s the type of earth worship and eerie atmosphere Igor Stravinsky presented in Rite of Spring at the first half of the 20th Century. William’s meandering melody lines also reference the modulation techniques of Prokofiev. A hazy embellishing of harp and flute adds a dreamy Debussy Impressionism while particular atonal textures suggest influences from Varese, Ligheti or Stockhausen. These incidental passages predict William’s later trials in electronic music. In swings and glides, hops and gallops his music pays a thoughtful homage to our planets weird and colourful eco system.

Calling William’s music “jolly good” (all the words you need), Attenburough also helped towards the release of the record. In addition, for those of you overwhelmed by the vast history of Classical music and uncertain as to where to begin, this release is an accessible doorway past the elitist guardians who so often ruin the simple, universal enjoyment of the genre. What’s that? You don’t like Classical music? Listen, I had to resurrect the rotting corpse of my Classical training for this review! Stop being a pussy and download some Beethoven or something.

(© Copyright 2009 Brendan Morgan)