Silbernacht - Liebe und Verfall
April 13 2008 at 06:29:16 AM
Not entirely dissimilar from Morton Feldman's Music for Samuel Beckett, Silbernacht give the listener four different pieces of music that behave in strikingly similar ways. There is a queer sense of fastidious reworking, as each piece swells with life and perishes slowly over several minutes, its expanse little more than complementary permutations of tonal organ patterns. Leibe und Verfall, indeed.
Like all instrumental music, it's in the hearer's hands as to what images are patched together. Given the ensemble's Teutonic heritage and the chosen instrumentation, I'm having an inordinate amount of trouble banishing visions of noisily speckled silent film footage, Holderlin's/Hegel's idealism, and heavily lipsticked Garbo-bots laving at Schutzstaffel officer's jackboots. Mmm.
But I'm certain many will be compelled to equate this music with the films of David Lynch. That's a lazy, albeit significant analogue. This notion of the inevitability of hope's death and the preservation and continuance of love is certainly sympathetic to the Lynchian eidos. But Silbernacht's vision is grounded by historicity, whereas Lynch's is more plastic and clouded by ambiguity. No big deal; this is a provocative music no matter what mindset the listener brings. Recommended.
[Stewart Voegtlin]
Silbernacht
Leibe und Verfall
The Ajna Offensive
http://www.theajnaoffensive.com
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