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The Kilowatt Hour ft. Franz Wright

17.09.13

„Earlier this year I had the good fortune to meet and work with the American Pulitzer prize-winning poet Franz Wright. I’d been an enthusiastic admirer of Franz’s work for many years but with the publication of the volume Kindertotenwald I found I’d made a very personal connection with a uniquely intimate collection of prose poems. At the time of reading I’d no idea of the twists and turns my life was to take in the year to come, the ramifications of which chimed so profoundly with Franz’s work (having already written and recorded the title track for Died in the Wool and my interpretations of the poetry of Emily Dickinson), nor had I any notion that approximately one year later I’d be sitting in a studio in his home town in Massachusetts, recording his readings from that same volume.

In the early months of 2013 I’d written to Franz in the hope of piquing his interest in a possible project, which I could only describe in the most nebulous of terms. As fortune would have it, he was familiar enough with my work to embrace the idea from the outset. Unfortunately, he was in very poor health having been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Cancer is no stranger to Franz, he’d stared down its barrels once before, it was a fight he’d won against the odds, but here it was back again, lying in wait, biding its time, time Franz can’t afford to waste as he continues to write with formidable determination, honesty, courage, and a devotion to his craft, his muse, documenting his fluctuating moods, insights, intellect, sorrows, loves and bloody rage in these, his last volumes, the latest being ‚F‘.

At the same time as I’d been speaking with Franz I’d also been discussing a spate of concerts with Stephan Mathieu and Christian Fennesz. It now seems inevitable perhaps that these two projects should’ve come together in what is currently a brief series of performances based on an outline for a composition I put together as recently as August 2013. The piece is constructed so as to allow for freely improvised input from Christian and Stephan anchored by Franz’s readings and my own compositional constructs. As I write this we’re still exploring the possibilities of the piece following on from our debut performance at the Punkt Festival, Kristiansand, Norway, September 2013 and Franz remains on the other end of the line talking to me of Jacob and the angel and a thousand other things that have, in truth, helped sustain me, as has his magnificent voice as it resounds around the venues and theatres of Europe.

The trio is known as The Kilowatt Hour.“

David Sylvian, September 2013

Also, von allen Ausgaben der JazzFacts, die ich bislang gemacht habe, war dies mein Favorit. Dachte nun, ich hätte eine kleine Glückssträhne erwischt. Leider nicht. Borussia Dortmund hatte in Neapel einen gebrauchten Tag und verlor in wenigen Minuten Hummels, Klopp und Weidenfeller. Dass ein Grossteil von Fussballdeutschland nun mal wieder Moralapostel spielt, und sich über Klopps Ausraster aufregt, quittiere ich mit einem Lächeln. Und dass Der Spiegel als Wahlhelfer der CDU fungiert durch sein Steinbrück-Bashing, gefällt mir auch nicht, obwohl mir selbst der schwer zu gehiessende Peer ungefähr so unsympathisch ist wie der einstige Moralkeulenschwinger Hoeness, dem man in „Amigoland“ gewiss zur Seite stehen wird. Und dass so eine Partei wie die FDP, mit einer Figur wie Brüderle an der Spitze, die 5 % knacken wird, ist übel genug. Brüderle könnte als Realsatiriker mit seinen Reden kleine Bierzelte füllen. Und gestern: Janelle Monnae. Erst liess sie uns, die werte Kundschaft, 70 Minuten in der stickigen unbelüfteten Räumlichkeit des Stadtgartens hocken wie Sardinen in warmem Olivenöl: fucking organisation! Dann startete sie mit einer perfekt durchgestylten Show durch: grossartige Stimme, gute Band, gute Inszenierung – aber mich liess das, ähmmmmm, völlig kalt. Das ging einigen so, war aber ein klares Minderheitenvotum. Die guten Nachrichten (wen’s betrifft:)) am Schluss. Heute erscheint Bill Callahans Klassealbum DREAM RIVER, und es ist sogar im „Musikexpress“ Album des Monats geworden. Frank Sawatzki hat den Text verfasst und beweist Musikverständnis, wenn er schreibt, das hätte auch Callahans Bossa Nova-Platte werden können, aber wer wolle das schon?! Gut geschrieben, Frankie Boy, wir kennen uns von früher, und es ist immer etwas Besonderes, wenn wie die gleiche Platte mögen. A propos: der Postbote brachte gerade den TRAUMFLUSS, in der Vinylausgabe. Zusammen mit der Schallplatte, die Stephan Mathieu, Mitglied von David Sylvians „Kilowatt Hour“, und Urheber des exzellenten Doppelalbums „The Falling Rocket“, mir als „Anlagen-Test“ (und wegen ihrer puren musikalischen Zauberkraft) ans Herz legte, EL CORAZON von Don Cherry und Ed Blackwell, und damit wären wir wieder, nach der gestrigen JazzFacts-Ausgabe, bei aussergewöhnlichen Werken des Münchner Labels angelangt, und dem unermüdbaren Produzenten. Meine Empfehlung, lieber Manfred: lade Tigran Hamasyan , Jan Bang, Eivind Aarset und Erik Honore, ein Wochenende nach Oslo ein, ins Rainbow Studio, und dann wissen wir schon, wer das Album des Jahres 2014 raushauen wird.

Producing The Jazz Facts in the Deutschlandfunk was pure fun. A lot of nice coincidencies: two days ago, I realized that not only Ralph Towner’s TRAVEL GUIDE, but Carla Bley’s TRIOS, too, were recorded in that „radio theatre“  in Lugano. And after talking with Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel about his first recording with producer Manfred Eicher, I decided to need another voice sheding some light on the special room and the producer’s input. So, I got Bley’s long-time sax player Andy Sheppard on the phone, and what he told me, was the icing on the cake, a great finish for the show. 

Bill Callahan has an uncanny ability to make you think about life. The images are vivid, the language, simple, and the metaphors open to interpretation. He’s a storyteller who could arguably be mentioned in the same breath as troubadours like Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, even Johnny Cash.

As with every Callahan release—dating back to his 1988 debut under the Smog moniker—there’s plenty to chew on with his latest, Dream River. And that’s just the lyrics, whose weightiness is given more heft by his controlled baritone. His records seem to be made up of a million vivid scenes that paint a compelling portrait of the human condition.

Where 2011’s Apocalypse was a more lonesome record, Dream River feels optimistic. You probably won’t get that from opener “The Sing,” which puts you in a hotel bar, the narrator explaining, “the only words I’ve said today are ‘beer’ and ‘thank you.’” But as the album progresses you get a sense of an underlying love story, one that’s far from perfect, and one that could be real or a dream. “Small Plane” uses its titular metaphor to describe the trust of a man and a woman (presumably through what could be interpreted as the biggest act of trust). The album continues this way, painting a clear narrative through seemingly hazy recollections.

Musically, Dream River matches the dreamlike state of Callahan’s lyrics. Guitars intertwine softly with equally slinky bass lines. Flutes chirp like spring birds on “Javelin Unlanding” and “Summer Painter,” while percussion pitters and patters throughout. There are more jazz flourishes than straight country strums, which add to the record’s dream sequences. It’s easy to get lost, especially through headphones.

It’s hard to tell which (if any) parts of Dream River are pulled from Callahan’s own life, or if he’s simply gleaning from the human condition. “Life ain’t confidential / No, no, no / It’s not, it isn’t and it ain’t, confidential,” he sings on “Ride My Arrow.” That sentiment essentially illustrates the 47-year-old’s existence over the past 25 years. Callahan has used his art to make sense of the world, and in turn helps us make some sense of it, too.

Joey will review a new record of Tim Berne‘ s Snakeoil, Gregs will maybe – I can only guess – make some remarks about Peter Handke’s new narrative / essay  „Versuch über den Pilznarren“. I will publish a small interview with Wolfgang Muthspiel sheding some light on the ECM album „Traveling Guide“. Then, I have to tell the readers something about a beautifully packaged vinyl box of an Australian underground band of the early eighties, Laughing Hands. More surprises in the near or distant future by Bob, Martina, Joey, Henning and Ian – you never know! 

Es wird wohl das letzte Mal sein, dass man die afrofuturistische Queen, die das Erbe von Marvin und Sly mit Prince und Eriyka im Gefolge antritt, in einem so kleinen Club sehen kann. Ein Manafonista wird sich ganz vorne an den Bühnenrand drängen und das Tanzbein zur Zauberstimme der „elektrischen Lady“ schwingen. Zur gleichen Zeit werden am Donnerstag die JazzFacts um 21.05 Uhr Norwegen ins Zentrum rücken. Am Freitag dann geht es Schlag auf Schlag: Bill Callahans fantastisches Songalbum „Dream River“ erscheint, auch auf Vinyl (und die Reaktion der Kritik ist äusserst kontrovers, gut so!), man kann sich den einzigen Song besorgen, den Brian Eno im Jahre 2013 zum Besten gibt, die Coverversion eines Peter Gabriel-Liedes (allerdings eher gesprochen als gesungen), und Ralph Towner veröffentlicht „Travel Guide“: drei Gitarristen (Wolfgang Muthspiel, Slava Grigoryan gesellen sich dazu) spielten in Lugano ein ganz feines Album ein. Und zu allem Überfluss des Guten erscheint heute auch noch der neue Roman „Bleeding Edge“ (das Original) von Thomas Pynchon, seine Abrechnung mit modernen Zeiten, in denen Menschen sich nicht mehr anblicken, sondern „nach geistiger Malware abscannen“. Marisha Pessls „Die amerikanische Nacht“ ist gestern im Buchhandel angekommen, dieser „mystery thriller“ mit Tiefgang erteilt dem geneigten Leser mal wieder einer Lektion darin, was es heissst, zwischen zwei Buchdeckeln zu verschwinden. 

This week’s edition of JazzFacts at the Deutschlandfunk Radio (thursday evening, 21.05) will contain a lot of  „Norwegian Food“, Karsten Mützelfeld’s review of  a Trondheim Showcase, my  feature about the 9.th Punkt Festival – and a bunch of new Norwegian albums by the usual suspects Jan Bang, Arve Henriksen and Nils Petter Molvaer. All this will be framed by the excellent new ECM-albums by Ralph Towner (and his guitar trio) and Carla Bley (with her long-time trio). I talked with Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel about „Travel Guide“ and the producer’s Manfred Eicher contribution. I hope, too, to still speak with English sax player Andy Sheppard about the magic of Carla’s „Trios“. For everyone who followed the story of ECM from the early days (my first record was SART, my second RUTA & DAITYA), realizing the age of the persons involved  might be a lesson in time slipping away. Manfred turned 70 this year, Ralph Towner is 73 or 74, and Carla and Steve, well, they aged well, too. 

„The PM used a newspaper interview to liken himself to the Incredible Hulk, poised to break free of the EU’s “manacles”, saying: “The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets.”

My goodness, that’s a terrific film. Just got the BluRay two days ago. Only waited for the darkness to fall. Put it in the computer, and was floored. I won’t give away the story. It’s called „Mud“, and I waited for it since I saw the trailer months ago. Jeff Nichols’s exhilarating movie concerns two 14-year-old boys growing up in a small town beside the Mississippi, and it’s impossible while watching it not to think about Huckleberry Finn and Hemingway’s claim for its essential position in the experience of growing up close to the American landscape. And, well, no one writes it down, I do it: the soundtrack is fine and made out of simple tunes, even mainstream tunes. Not that there are  melodies that instantly bewitch you: it’s the art of this soundtrack never to overpower the pictures, and to tell a slightly different story to the one you’re seeing on the screen. Subtly uplifting. Do yourself a favor, and go for this movie!

Trailer