CD Feature/ Organum: "Die Hennen Zähne"
TobiasSometimes you just don’t want to know about the history of an artist or an album. Not because of any hiddeous dark secrets you might discover, but because it could spoil the fun. David Jackman, the key figure behind Organum, knows all about the magic of mystery. Information about him is scant, even though an unoffical homepage (only updated until 2002) offers a few revealing interviews. His work remains just as secluded, a black box of distant drones, splintered noises and shimmering flutes. And his latest offering, “Die Hennen Zähne”, once again works brilliantly without any background information.
For, when listening to this for the first time, I thought this to be a both eclectic and yet strangely coherent release. Once again wonderfully presented to boot: A 3’’ CD with an orange feather imprinted on it, a white digipack and nothing but typo for artwork. With the music clocking in at 18 minutes, a highly focused delivery as well. Considering this, it was intriguing to read that the material was originally intended to be split in two – which would have made for a bizarre siamese twin of extremely short lengths. Looking at things now, the one-disc-solution seems perfect: “Die Hennen Zähne” makes for a stringent listening experience, with each piece deepening the impression received by the former. Opening with a slow beat dragging itself through two submontanely humming tones and a thick layer of digeridoo drones, the music walks barefoot thorugh the broken glass of the sharply teethed title track, a collage of wailing, moaning and metallic noises, before entering the unresty sleep of “Maus”, a tidal wave of warm sounds interspersed with the bevelling and physically confronting recordings of a grinding machine. The final track, “Kazi”, then sounds like closing time in a factory hall, with an aluminium ball sliding down a shoot. Only two and a half minutes long, it sounds familiar, comforting and beautiful.
One can be perfectly happy with the music only and if you’re afraid of knowing more, then don’t read on. Because, in fact, these tracks all derive from the most different periods of Jackman’s work, with one even dating back to the 80s. There was no initional connection between them, nor a plan. On the other hand, this makes things even more interesting – after all, suddenly these disjointed parts suddenly make perfect sense. If you think about it, the mystey only gets bigger.
Homepage: David Jackman / Organum
Homepage: Die Stadt Music
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