Six Organs of Admittance – Asleep on the Floodplain (2011)

Nema iznenadjenja, jos jedan veoma dobar album za Ben Chasny-a, neprestana mantra...

As has become normal, a new Six Organs of Admittance album arrives amidst a flurry of extra-Organic work from Ben Chasny. 2010 saw him release the excoriating False Flag as one third of Rangda with Richard Bishop and Chris Corsano. This year should see the release of two albums by 200 Years, a duo project with Elisa Ambrogio of Magik Markers (one is due on Drag City in the spring, the other is scheduled to appear as part of the Grapefruit subscription record club). And there are other ongoing collaborations, both on and off record.


The instrumental numbers include solo guitar pieces recorded with no additional trickery and others with harmonium overdubbed. Some, such as the lovely “Poppies,” are miniatures that allow us to marvel at Chasny’s sense of dynamics, at the way he gets us concentrating on the bass runs while he runs circles around us with the higher notes. Other tracks, such as the harmonium-enhanced album opener, develop ideas over a longer period, mixing slow strums with rippling string dances. The recording throughout is brilliant, a listener-friendly mix of hi-fi clarity and low fuzz. Where Rangda assaulted, here Chasny caresses. Where Rangda reveled in the rock, here Chasny glories in the resonance of wooden music.
The album as a whole has an instrumental feel to it, underlined by the non-assertive nature of the “songs.” We are left with the perennial question of whether or not we should try to interpret such pieces. What are they “about”? Chasny has given them titles, many of which evoke the presence or absence of water: “Above a Desert I’ve Never Seen,” “Brilliant Blue Sea Between Us,” “Saint of Fishermen,” “River of My Youth,” “S/word and Leviathan,” and the floodplain of the album’s title. Chasny has spoken in interviews of being influenced by Gaston Bachelard’s writings on the elements, and references to processes elemental and cosmic have abounded in many of Chasny’s projects.