There's deja vu and then there's Deja Vu. Let me explain. The former just about everybody has dealt with: you hear a tune and there's a strong sense of "Hey, doesn't this remind you of.....?" The latter is far more rare. A song floats by and two thoughts simultaneously occupy your mind — that you've never heard this song before and that it has existed forever.
Hyperbole? Go ahead and listen to Theo Bleckmann and Ben Monder's At Night and tell me I'm wrong. The textures of Monder's decaying & coalescing guitar figures and Bleckmann's incredible (and incredibly unique!) voice gave me the distinct impression that this was some sort of ancient music looking for a place to land.
Ben Monder has played sideman in many contexts: pure jazz (Lee Konitz), 'modern' jazz (Paul Motian), sorta rock/sorta jazz (the Tim Ries Rolling Stones project), and the free-ranging pop of Dave's True Story. Bleckmann has recorded with the likes of Ikue Mori, Mark Dresser, and vocal phenom Meredith Monk. I consider it a black mark on my permanent record that his name did not ring a bell with me.
Musically, At Night mostly features Bleckmann and Monder as a duo, with the occasional bit of percussion (Satoshi Takeishi) and/or processing thrown in. The opening piece "Late, By Myself," at nearly ten minutes long, shows off many of the features of this pair. Monder's guitar fills much of the space with continuously shifting acoustic guitar arpeggios. Bleckmann rides on top of this with some of the purest vocals you're ever likely to hear. Delivered with and without lyrics, Bleckman follows Monder's song structure, beautifully adding layer upon layer. It is truly gorgeous stuff.
Not all selections on this album cleave to that ethereal model. "Carbon" features Bleckmann as spooky vocal didgeridoo with Monder providing ominous guitar support. "Swarm" is a group improv that begins in quite the frenetic state only to begin throttling the skronk back to mere ambient levels.
Maybe it was the texts of Rumi. Maybe it was the Joni Mitchell cover ("Sunny Sunday"). Maybe even the not to be missed cover of the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood." Monder is over the place, Bleckmann adds his own twist. Exhilarating, trippy, and a little scary too. And somehow, comforting...
...like I'd heard it before.
Article comments
1 - Connie Phillips
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