MOUNT ANALOGUE

4.5 stars. John Zorn has already released five studio albums this year but lets talk about one of his 2012 recordings called "Mount Analogue". This is one long 38 plus minute suite performed by five very talented musicians who all add vocals. There is actually no singing but we get these vocal expressions that bring ART ZOYD to mind, disturbing and deep growls almost. We have a Brazilian percussionist who has played with ELECTRIC MASADA and THE NILES CLINE SINGERS, the vibes player is American and played with ELECTRIC MASADA while the drummer is American also playing an African drum called a calabash. An American keyboardist adds piano and organ and played with THE NILES CLINE SINGERS and lastly the American bass player a graduate of Berkley and he also went to Israel to learn stuff. He plays a skin covered three stringed bass called a gimbri as well as an oud plus of course his normal bass setup.

He was also on 2017's "Interpretation Of Dreams" by Zorn and that one I recently reviewed and it really set me up for this album. That 2017 album is much more stripped down as we get bass, drums and vibes only on two tracks while a string quartet and piano are all we get for the other song. I was so drawn to that record surprisingly. This one even more because it is more adventerous and involves many more instruments overall. We still get those warm vibes but along with them it's the piano leading the way much of the time while the bass and drums support. More percussion sounds too along with those ethnic instruments but very much in the style of "Interpretation Of Dreams". I also like how much atmosphere is on here usually from the cymbals or organ.

And while this can be sophisticated and fancy it clearly has moments that are dark and disturbing(vocals). This flows beautifully and changes often but seamlessly blends into each section. I'm not going to describe the ride because it's a long one but man I looked forward to putting this on when it was it's turn last week. We all know Zorn is a musical genius and he sure likes the extreme so this is like a slice of musical heaven to be honest. Space to breathe yet he changes it up enough to have me looking forward to his next move. Simply an inspirational recording.