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Music from Jewels and Binoculars, Del Rey
May 9, 2008, 12:05 AM
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Jewels and Binoculars is a collective - Michael Moore on clarinet, saxophone and melodica; Lindsey Horner on bass and Michael Vatcher on percussion - that explores, exclusively, the repertoire of Bob Dylan.
"Ships With Tattooed Sails" (Upshot Records) is their third release of such material. It is both tribute, on one hand, and inspired re-visioning on another.
Their focus is on instrumental improvisation, using the basic folk song structure of Dylan's works as a starting point from which - using the clarinet and saxophone to carry the melody - they expand and transcend genres. Bass provides harmony, and the various percussion instruments adds texture.
Although there are some well-known songs among the 12 included - "It's Alright, Ma, I'm Only Bleeding," "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," "Gates of Eden" - the CD focuses on some of Dylan's lesser-known songs.
Bill Frisell's contributes guitar on three cuts and his harmonic washes are used to great effect on something like "Blind Willie McTell."
Again and again, the group succeeds in translating, recasting the originals in new, and compelling form.
The collective draws their name from the lyrics of "Visions of Johanna" in which the jewels and binoculars are hanging from the head of a mule while fish trucks and skeleton keys make it all too clear: she's just not here.
The CD title is drawn from "Gates of Eden," with its hound dogs on the beach baying (Frisell, again, is great here) at the ships heading off for the gates.
It's a tribute to this ensemble that you can hear these lyrical sentiments in the instruments, just as sure as you can see the "ghost of electricity in her face."
Del Rey and The Sun Kings are an experimental cross-genre ensemble based in Los Angeles. They are classical in intent, often experimental, industrial and/or Enzio Morricone-esque in content.
Their "Battleship Potemkin" (Trakwerx) is an homage to, and imaginary soundtrack for, Sergei Eisenstein's classic 1925 silent film.
It is the story of a group of sailors aboard the Potemkin who decided to mutiny against the tyrannical rule of Czar Nicholas II.
The CD consists of 16 compositions that parallel, more or less, the movie's storyline.
The music is evocatively visual, a blending of classical violins (in the mode of Samuel Barber), guitars, snippets of trumpet (a la Miles Davis in the "Kind of Blue" period) and nods to the spaghetti Western pings and pongs of Morricone with an array of percussion, keyboards and synthetic samples (Morse code, machines, voices) that would be at home in the recordings of Tangerine Dream or Einsturzende Nebauten.
The result is a satisfying, aurally complex and genre- transcending piece of work.
Next week: We'll take a look at some other recent recordings, including "Prog" by The Bad Plus, who will be in Fallon on May 17 (see story below).
- Kirk Robertson is a
resident of Fallon.
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