Absinthe

Absinthe

Artist: Naked City , and John Zorn
Label: Avant
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1
EAN: 4988044900042
ASIN: B00000DCM5

Release Date: 2003-04-14

Related Categories:

Avant Garde & Free Jazz

| Jazz | Styles | Music

General

| Jazz | Styles | Music

General

| Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

Experimental Rock

| Rock | Alternative Styles | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Listmania:

Soundtrack for life after 2am

Tracks:

Val De Travers
Une Correspondance
La Fee Verte
Fleurs Du Mal
Artemisia Absinthium
Notre Dame De L'Oubli
Verlaine (Part One): 'Un Midi Moins Dx'
Verlaine (Part Two): 'La Bleue'
...Rend Fou

Customer Reviews:

dark forebodings.......2005-04-25

Absinthe is not a symphony. Absinthe has nothing to do with coffee and bagels, denim shorts or the three tenors. Absinthe is not obscene, yet neither is it family friendly. Absinthe is 9 sinister pieces of audio in the guise of a hallucinogenic nightmare. It borders on the insane. It tears through to the imaginative senses and manipulates them to the extreme. It's plagued with a host of sounds which would make anyone feel ill at ease...

Arrhythmic heartbeats, death knells, spectral guitar, thundering skies, whimpering rodents and strange bird calls...tinkling bells, perpetual rumbling, metallic vibrations and clanging, poltergeist-like mayhem.....Allowing Absinthe so much as a single listen might be enough to instill or reawaken a belief in the supernatural. There may even come a time when the listener feels quite convinced that the sounds they hear are coming from somewhere other than the disc.

A track as cryptically challenging as "Fleurs du Mal" is certain to tempt the morbidly curious. "La fee Verte" is bound to beguile those willing to descend to the depths of a dizzying nightmare. And "Notre Dame de l'Oubli" may have a wary listener crouching in fear beneath a darkened stairway listening to the sound of his own heartbeat...

Unexpected but amazing........2005-03-25

"Absinthe" is probably about as unexpected as could be-- Naked City, having established themselves as a genre bending band blending styles and engaging in terse, loud recordings, having evolved into a looser structure, now let's loose altogether. Zorn's compositional workshop led him to compose ambient musics, soft, tinkling, unaggressive, quite the opposite of the expectations of Naked City.

"Absinthe" actually really not that different from "Grand Guignol", only its taken down several notches in volume, intensity, and distortion. Development is slow, building, and sometimes not at all ("Fleurs Du Mal"). Some of it ("Une Correspondance", "Artemisia Absinthium") does get pretty noisy, but its not noisy the earlier albums were, its dissonant, metallic at times.

Conceptually, its interesting-- it succeeds remarkably well, the material, for something as subdued as this, is quite engaging, you find yourself waiting and anticipating what comes next. There are some remarkably beautiful moments on here admist the dissonance and silence ("Notre Dame de L'Oubli" is a personal favorite), but this is not an easy record.

If you're expecting it to sound like "Naked City" or "Grand Guignol", it won't. If you're not used to ambient music, this is going to be a tough one. But like much of the difficult Zorn material, it will reward repeated and patient listens.

Fear this music..........2005-03-23

Do not believe all the previous reviews. If they categorized this album as 'dull' then they obviously have not listened to it loud enough or in a dark room. Absinthe was my first introduction to Naked City and in my oppinion, it is their masterpiece. And I do enjoy their other material, being an avid fan of similar artists such as As the Sun Sets, Locust, and Fantomas.

I insist that anyone who appreciates music as more than background entertainment listens to this recording, alone and in a dark silent spot. I guarantee they will be terrified.

Naked City would not be truly great without this release. It seems Zorn has brilliantly captured the sound of paranoia and scizophrenia on this recording. Each song is so prefectally arranged that to create the best effet. Far better than any horror movie I have ever seen. No two songs are alike.

All I can say to describe this is just two words: beautiful madness.

Buy it now.

Dull.......2001-03-20

I think that John Zorn is an important musician and like to give him the benefit of the doubt. Many of his countless albums are brilliant. Even when his music is not that interesting on first listen, I will hang in there and listen repeatedly in the hope of finding treasures not immediately apparent. However, this album just leaves me cold. I really don't care if it is like or unlike other Naked City releases, or which musicians are on it. It's one of those albums that stands on its own merits because it is so unique. It appears to be an exercise in making the smallest possible amount of sound for the length of an entire album while still making some sound. It may be "ambient", but if so, it is dull ambient. It's just plain dull. One can admire the idea or vision of this album but I have to say that I don't like it much, and I like a lot of Zorn.

great cd - by one of the best bands ever!.......2000-06-27

i totally disagree with the other review from august 1999. this cd proves once again that naked city were one of the greatest bands ever. they covered so many different kinds of music in such a fantastic way: re-arrangements of 14th century classical music, re-arrangements of great film music, plain mad speed metal, full-on improvisations - and beyond! yamatsuka eye is not missing on this cd at all. this cd is one step further for naked city. it is kind of ambient-ish, but in a very weird kind of way. some of the sounds here will make your windows rumble! it will wake people up who are sleeping near the stereo. (i've seen it happen! ) to me it's an amazing work, perfectly executed by some of the greatest musicians of today. and it shows just what an excellent musical mind mister john zorn has. every real fan of naked city will not be disappointed by this release. and anyone else who's got his/her ears open and is interested in new and adventurous stuff will like this cd, i think.

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