CD Feature/ Tom Heasley: "Desert Tryptich"

Like a faceless runner on a silent lane

Two things that have substantially influenced Western Experimental Music over the last few decades are the heat and the vastness of the American badlands and Eastern philosophy. Both are present on this record.

Tom Heasley is neither a guru, nor an Indian. It is even likely, that “Desert Tryptich” is neither the result of a theory, a thesis nor a theorem. Nor that it’s asking for a little space in the drawers labeled “Ambient” and “Ritual”. Still, it is clear that these three musical exorcisms evoke the same goasts as those of shamans like Steve Roach and follow a similar Zen-like approach. The deep drone of the didgeridoo kicks in proceedings on all tracks and those first moments, as its simmering roar starts filling the space around the listener, are the last sounds for quite some time that bind one to this world. After that, its tone subsides into a pulsating heartbeat, harmonic clouds drift over a silvery sky, whistling and whispering noise particles swirl around, only to be gently pushed aside by the occasional murmuring of a foreign voice. Some will complain that nothing’s really happening in this trilogy, which is probably true on an “objective” level. But then this “nothingness” seems to contain everything as an embryonic potential, only without shape and name. And there’s no such thing as standing still completely: Like a faceless runner on a silent lane, this album walks in endless circles, arriving at the same point from ever-different perspectives and with new insights.

“Desert Tryptich” is like flickering air over hot tar, like the numbing pressure while waiting for a thunderstorm, like the deafening silence during free-fall. You don’t need a training in buddhist meditation techniques nor a ticket to the Rocky Mountains to find that inspiring.

Homepage: Tom Heasley
Homepage: Farfield Records