dankrsta

Well, this is a tough one. Didn't really have as much time as I wanted to thoroughly dive into it, and that's necessary for this kind of challenging music. I've heard it three of four times and it's a very difficult listening. I've heard it on speakers and then on headphones and it's equally challenging either way. Clutnuckle said: "When you don't pay too much attention to it, it operates almost like a drone record". Hmmm...I didn't find this to be the case for me. When I don't pay a close attention, it becomes irritating, creating a discomfort, or simply inviting me to pay attention. It is intrusive, which drone isn't. I can loose myself in drone, drift away, but with this I am invited to make a considerable effort in connecting between 'random' sounds, to co-create basically. Otherwise it will not make much sense musically.

Perhaps 'inviting' isn't the right word, this music is 'demanding' and that's especially evident through the headphones. Every sound is banging you on the head and fighting for your attention. We can't pay attention to everything at once, it is in our nature to make selections and since the artists didn't do that (at least it doesn't seem like it after a couple of listens), that job is on you. The result is a mind-numbing and exhausting. Come on Ammmusic, give me some hints, meet me half way. But, that's the thing with pure free improvisation, the listener is just a coincidence, hell everything here is a coincidence, without beginning and the end, eternal or more likely non-existent.

I shouldn't even be listening to it recorded, because that's interference with the basic concept of free improvisation, that it should be temporal and based on chance. This music existed only as unprepared sessions at some point in time, in 1966, and it's gone now. The fact that we're able to hear it recorded as many times as we want and to actually learn how to listen to it is cheating. Because that's when we are trying to make a sense out of these sounds, to connect them, to compose. Isn't this completely the opposite of what the musicians are doing? They wanted to create something ephemeral, visceral, that comes from chaotic subconsciousness, outside of reason, absurd and completely coincidental. The presence of a listener is welcomed, but not necessary. But here's a paradox, these sounds are not music until listener connects them, 'cause the musicians didn't connect them, at least not intentionally.

Actually the best parts of this album are when the musicians are connected with each other unintentionally: the long middle parts of 'Later During A Flaming Riviera Sunset' and 'After Rapidly Circling The Plaza', two longest tracks. Maybe the extended duration gives them a chance to completely dive and loose themselves as individuals, thus connecting with each other and making the most sense, at the same time reaching to the listener. Isn't this also a paradox? That total immersion in subconscience actually sounds like composing the most, undermining free improvisation. It is after all our nature to make connections and relations between things, and that drive comes from the inside. That's why I always felt that it takes a lot of mental effort to make a total chance music, because it has to skip our inner drive for connecting, so therefore it is more based on reason, a cold experiment. When Ammmusic breaks into this territory it is at its most unappealing.

So to get back to the start, like I said, I've heard this four times. I'm not really sure if another four times will change anything. This kind of music should be listened only once and live, if one really wants to totally experience the concept, because I suspect that a lot of unexpected and most important things happen between audience and musicians adding to the unpredictable nature of this experiment. I also realized that I have more enjoyment in thinking about the concept of total free improvisation and its possibilities than actually listening to it (thus this long post). For me, this album is impossible to rate. I understand its historical importance and influence, but going by the music alone (that shouldn't even be listened like this) there is a dilemma: Is it a representation of chaos or is it the chaos?

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