Category:
Rock

Try if you like:
Alan Licht, Jozef Van Wissem, La Monte Young

This is an odd but welcome release, one that in lesser hands might have been self-indulgent. Maverick filmmaker Jim Jarmusch teams up with sound artist/lute manipulator Jozef Van Wissem with the heavy, important sounding title "Concerning the Entrance into Eternity." But what could have been pretentious is instead powerful and full of surprising beauty; what might have been a vanity project is instead a coherent, bold exploration that often lives up to its weighty title. 

For most the five tracks, it is Van Wissem who drives the bus. "Apokatastasis (Restoration)" features a minimal, single chord, the foundation for the addition of occasional but slowly sustained acoustic and electronic lute notes. Likewise, "Concerning the Entrance into Eternity" is another minimal track with abstract country overtones, one with a poignant, childlike, calliope-like final section.

But Jarmusch factors in more and more as the set develops. "Continuation of the Last Judgement" is still based on Van Wissem abstract soundscapes, but with more jarring effects, mostly provided by Jarmusch's abrasive guitar. It is easy to forget that Jarmusch dabbled in several no-wave bands in late 70s New York

while working o his then short-film projects. His keyboard and guitar work still show that raw, abstract influence, one that brings bite sublime walls of sound to some of these tracks. With "The Sun of the Natural World is Pure Fire," Jarmusch provides a great raw sonic counterpoint, a din of massive but controlled guitar and ambient excess. The closer, "He is Hanging by His Shiny Arms" is a bit of a surprise:  a gentle, brittle acoustic piece, one that has at least most of the trappings of a structured "song."

In all, there are many memorable moments on "Concerning the Entrance into Eternity" that whet your appetite for further collaborations. Jozef Van Wissem and Jim Jarmusch are in sync with an understanding of how to make direct but massive explorations of sublime sonic power. Their interplay more often than evokes the deep poetry implied by the heavy titles that ought to work, but do and then some.