Rating: NNN
Greg Jarvis doesn’t lack ambition. For his third release with his Flowers of Hell orchestra, the bandleader makes his grandest statement yet: a single, 45-minute-plus semi-improvisational “song” recorded in one take and presented on double-sided CD in both stereo and 5.1 surround sound.
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Recorded by Toronto producer Jon Drew and mixed in Manchester by the Earlies’ Tom Knott (who shares with Jarvis a synesthetic condition in which sounds are perceived as shapes and colours), the result is hard to put into words. That’s intentional. Resembling German “absolute” music, the composition is meant to signify nothing beyond the music itself.
It’s so abstract, in fact, that it practically eschews structure altogether. Where most post-rock builds around crescendos, O never quite gets to that point. It threatens to explode around the 28-minute mark, but instead fades into hushed tones before abruptly ending after 45 minutes. Best approached with patience and without expectations.
Top track: O
The Flowers of Hell play O in full on Saturday (November 13) at St-Stephen-in-the-Fields Church.
