Customer Reviews

IAO: Music In Sacred Light

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John Zorn is one of contemporary music's most enigmatic and talented figures. The range of musical output by his Tzadik label is mind boggling. In my mind, Tzadik is the quintessential label for avant-garde and experimental music. Tzadik was founded in 1995 by Zorn and is responsible for releasing some of the most unique and uncompromising music ever recorded on this planet. Zorn himself is a masterful musician and composer. Since the 70's, John has explored Jewish music, soundtracks, grindcore, free jazz, chamber music, rock, mysticism, world music, and everything in between. He has worked with Bill Frisell, Wayne Horvitz, Derek Bailey, Fred Frith, Keiji Haino, Bill Laswell, Mike Patton, John Medeski, Marc Ribot, Yamatsuka Eye, and numerous others.

`I.A.O.' is inspired by Magick. Specifically, by the writings of Aliester Crowley and the films of Kenneth Anger- 2 of the 20th century's most notable students of the Occult. This is music with a purpose. It is intended to be used in invocations of the Beast. In fact, the name IAO is Kabbalistically identical to Satan. Just look at the song titles: `Invocation', `Sacred Rites Of The Left Hand Path', `Lucifer Rising', and `Sex Magick'. A dark ambience pervades this music. Much of it is hypnotic and trance inducing; some of it is downright creepy. `I.A.O.' is a very atmospheric work.

The first track, `Invocation' is a 7-plus minute drone-piece, making use of minor key organ, unclassifiable eerie sounds, human voice, and sinister synth tones to create tension and prepare the listener for what awaits. It is the perfect introduction for this album. `Invocation' is followed by `Sex Magick'. Clocking in at over 13 minutes, it's obvious what the intended function of this track is, as it utilizes hypnotic percussion to lure the listener in deeper.

Next up is one of my favorite pieces on the album, `Sacred Rites Of The Left Hand Path'. This track makes great use of a repeated evil sounding organ vamp. Devilish piano and equally unsettling synth combine with other ungodly sounds to produce something that would not be out of place in a truly scary horror film. After another highly effective 9-plus minute drone piece comes `Lucifer Rising', a truly haunting and lovely track. Jennifer Charles beckons, moans, and whispers over a seriously creepy female chorus, inviting us to the dark side. There is something very erotic about this piece. But then again, there has always been something appealing and sexy about `the dark side'.

`I.A.O.' ends with the death metal amalgamation of `Leviathan', featuring the vocals of none other than Mike Patton. Followed by the closer, `Mysteries', a perfect and dark end to a perfectly dark work. `I.A.O.' is one of my favorite of Zorn's releases. According to Tzadik, it is "hypnotic seven-movement suite of Alchemy, Mysticism, Metaphysics and Magic both black and white". I can't argue. This is one of the more interesting albums I have come across in a VERY long time. It is put together perfectly. If you are planning on any rituals, freaking out friends, or engaging in `magickal pursuits'; this album is a must-have. `I.A.O.' comes especially highly recommended if you are a student of the Occult.

Another John Zorn album and, well... it's excellent. As usual, Zorn's collaborators are superlative: Cyro Baptista, Greg Cohen, Bill Laswell, Mike Patton, Jamie Saft, Jim Pugliese, Jennifer Charles, Rebecca Moore, and Beth Hatton. This time the theme is "Alchemy, Mysticism, Metaphysics and Magic both black and white." Like the Music Romance series (_Music for Children_ and _Taboo & Exile_) the music is astoundingly diverse yet presents a unified mood and character, and like the kind-of-but-not-really-Music-Romance disc _The Gift_, it is highly pleasing to listen to -- in a dark, disturbing kind of way.

The pieces are strange because they don't really seem to go anywhere. There are no discernible beginnings or endings to these pieces, they are just...there. That is not to say they are repetitive -- they aren't. This is music that doesn't really flow, it just exists and captures the mood flawlessly. There is lots of development and tense dynamics, but their primary characteristic is their self-contained ritualistic element that pulls you in, hypnotizes you, and leaves you feeling strangely changed afterward. Dark spiritual relevation is possible with this cd.

The songs themselves? "Invocation" has murmuring organ with modulating pitch, watery percussion, electronically manipulated voices, and ominous noisy squalls of feedback. "Sex Magick" is a thirteen-minute percussion ritual with Cyro Baptista and Jim Pugliese, with jagged beats. It paradoxically seems to be both tribal & primitive and advanced and transcendent, with geometrically influenced rhythmic patterns. "Sacred Rites of the Left Hand Path" is an eerie, dissonant, frightening piece with a minimalist slant. Saft's atonal acoustic piano playing is darkly enchanting and the arrhythmic electric piano with the quiet percussion as a backdrop is pretty scary. "The Clavicle of Soloman" is absolutely incredible. It's hard to describe, but it's AMAZING. It's really just slow ebbs of high-pitched static, with the occasional melody carefully hidden, and I have no idea why it is so good. It reminds of Ligeti's Atmosphères in a way, a piece where it seems that nothing happens while at the same time so much happens. It is a great feat in electronic timbre and unfolding tone clusters. "Lucifer Rising" is an a capella piece for female chorus with a soloist moaning and whispering, breathily pleading for dark rites. It'd probably be sexy if it weren't so disconcerting. "Leviathan" is a thick, complex hulk of death metal noise with Mike Patton's screaming sounding like an evil spirit being exorcised. "Mysteries" is an abstract piece that reminds me of Naked City's _Absinthe_.

This is another truly masterful work by Zorn, and an essential item for anyone interested in him at all.

I have to say that John Zorn is one of the more prolific artists out there, especially one that is working so far under the mainstream radar. After being totally blown away by THE GIFT, I picked this one up simply because the subject matter seemed to be well suited to Zorn's ambient jazz noise feel & I wanted to see how he pulled it off. Add to the mix Mike Patton and Jennifer Charles (who were last seen together on Dan the Automator's Lovage album with outstanding results) and this was an album that I had to check out.
While the packaging likened it to being as accessable as THE GIFT, IAO is a different kind of beast all together. Where THE GIFT was simply a grooving composition with a hidden agenda under the tropical feel -- IAO is a contemplative work in which all of Crowley's main themes are touched on. It lacks the overall listenability that oozed from THE GIFT but it is a much more deeper, brooding album. The shift in genres throughout the album meld so well together - tribal beats to a haunted house melody of nightmares to slow brooding electronica to a seductive female choral arrangement to a Mike Patton screeching noise collage, this album encompasses it all & succeeds with each jump and movement.
As with all of Zorn's releases -- this is a distant album, much different from the usual musical releases but fits wonderfully into Zorn's own collection. In a way it is a darker version of THE GIFT, all tropical elegance and beauty is replaced by a dark magical circle that is both beautiful and horrifying in the same instance. But unlike some of Zorn's releases, this is one that I see myself coming back to after time, to slowly hear it reveal more and more of it. I am not a big Zorn fan, haven't had much exposure save for Mike Patton solo albums with Zorn helping out, the Mr. Bungle influences, but I am slowly coming around, albums like IAO and THE GIFT are some of the best music I have ever heard. I cannot wait to delve in more. This album comes highly recommended.

John Zorn is a musician of startling diversity and perhaps an even more startling batting average when it comes to the quality of his music. When one of his real masterpieces comes around though, one is always amazed to find just how good music can be. "I.A.O.: Music in Sacred Light" is one of those pieces.

Drawing inspiration from the writings of turn-of-the-twentieth-century occultist Aleister Crowley and the films of Kenneth Anger (probably best known for "Lucifer Rising"), the album is touted on the Tzadik website as a "hypnotic seven-movement suite of Alchemy, Mysticism, Metaphysics and Magic both black and white". While the descriptions on the Tzadik website are noted for their hyperbole, in this case, this may be entirely accurate.

The music on "I.A.O." is mysterious, enchanting, swirling, and intriguing. The musicians involved (vocalists Mike Patton, Jennifer Charles, Beth Anne Hatton and Rebecca Moore, bassists Greg Cohen and Bill Laswell, pianist/organist Jamie Saft, and percussionists Jim Pugliese and Cyro Baptista) appear in small ensemebles throughout, performing music that is minimalist and yet delicately beautiful-- I'm reminded of Messiaen, Kagel, and Naked City's "Absinthe" at times and Verdi, Morricone and "Torture Garden" at others.

"I.A.O." moves through seven movements during its composition. Opening movement "Invocation" is a wall of metallic percussion with a high organ or synth part and Patton whispering in the background. This moves into the percussion-oriented "Sex Magick"-- drawing its sound largely from Central and South American sources before the piece changes directions in the third movement, "Sacred Rites of the Left Hand Path", featuring a loping yet aggressive organ line, pounding pianos, and more whispering from Patton. There's a sense of unity to these three movements, a building, haunting, delicate sound that permeates all three. The fourth movement ("The Clavicle of Solomon") should be a drastic shift but isn't-- moving the sound into electronic noise, scrapes, and high pitched tones that should be grating but somehow are not. And even though the sound has quieted, it somehow continues that feeling of building intensity that was prevelent in the first three movements.

The next portion of the suite ("Lucifer Rising") is focused largely on vocals, with a female choir (and what sounds like a flute accompaniment) gently pushing forward while Charles whispers darkly, evoking a thick slab of tension that will be released on "Leviathan"-- a slab of death metal featuring throbbing bass from Laswell and positively inspired vocals from Patton. Patton's final scream ends unaccompanied and the closing movement, "Mysteries", is quite the opposite of "Leviathan"-- electric piano gently playing dark lines over delicate percussion.

Nearly as interesting as the music contained within the CD is the artwork-- though contained in a standard jewel case, the liner notes consist of four cards, each detailing some element of the performance. The entire jewel case slides into a white slipcase with raised symbols printed on either side.

All in all, this is quite a package, the music has that odd quality of being familiar even while being totally alien. One of the essential Zorn recordings. Probably not a good place to start for Zorn (that's still "Naked City"), but maybe a good second. Highly recommended.

The macabre tone isn't sustained throughout but with IAO Zorn offers yet another peculiar lesson in sustained tension.

IAO represents the fourth, final and most likely best entry into Zorn's stellar Music Romance series. Like Music for Children and Taboo and Exile, IAO is much a mixed bag with sound-stage theatrics, ambient tribal polyrhythms, experimental noise and a lone death metal track rounding out the disc this time linked with the common theme of magic and the occult. The album is dedicated to the films of Kenneth Anger, and, having taking a little time to investigate these, it's easy to imagine IAO as an alternate soundtrack to the avant-garde director's short films.

The high parts of the album are perhaps not up to the level of the best tracks on some of the others in the series (In the Temple of Hadjarim, the first track off of Taboo and Exile, remains my favorite single track from any in the series). However, there is not a lot of dead weight here either. Highlights include Invocation, an eerie sound-stage peice, Sacred Rites of the Left Hand Path, an atonal experimental peice and maybe the best track on the album, and Leviathan a writhing, twisting, beast of a death metal peice (this one I come back to just to try and figure out what is going on -- i've heard some people say that the audio is reversed and then played back over itself. If you know what's happening here, let me know in the comments section).

Overall, the standard is high with The Clavicle of Solomon being the only thing that is hard to listen to. I don't say this subjectively. One could argue, and I believe most of Zorn's fans would agree that much of Zorn is "hard to listen to." The Clavicle of Solomon, however, partially being composed of very high frequency drones, is literally very difficult to enjoy without physically irritating your ears. On the other end, this track also has some of the lowest frequencies I've ever seen (I can't hear them) on a music album. Take the dust guards off your speakers and you'll see the low frequency cones warbling in monstrous throws, seconds between each oscillation. The low frequencies aren't irritating in the least (although, your pet elephant may disagree) and it's pretty neat to see your speakers behaving in such a way.

Despite the discomfort -- and I'll aknowledge that this is, perhaps, the point, to disarm us physically, emotionally, and spiritually, to consume us at the juncture of the three -- IAO remains highly recommended and most enthralling.

Full Title: "IAO: Music in sacred light (which explains the title)

Honestly, listening to this album made me feel like i was sort of breaking into someone's house. I mean I've never really been into ambient music, except for maybe the first fantomas album, and the new suspended animation one. And what little reviews for this album said it was neither one of Zorn's essential recordings, nor was it one of his more hard-core works, nor was it a great album to start with, which it was for me. But all that side, the reviews were positive, and the theme and concepts of the tracks and the album as a whole, and being one who is intent on spread my listening ear, I decided to take a chance and get it.

Fortunatly for me, after paying some close listening to this album I was pleasently suprised at what I had just got. This Cd is one of those cds, like pink floyd's "dark side of the moon," Led zeppelin's "houses of the holy," because although it is far less acessable than those albums, it fits almost any occasion, and any emotion. Upon first listen, it was the creepiest sounding music I had ever heard and upon second listening, it was strangely soothing. It's a great album to just but on and drift away too, and although the music is on the subtle side, it doesnt take a huge amount of close listening to be coherent.

Last note: From the perspective of your average 14 year old lets-see-how-long -we-can- pound-on-these- things-before -the-cops-show-up-drummer- living-a-life-of- food-music- school-girls- and being an idiot on purpose, who listens to metallica, fishbone, the offspring, and mr. bungle, I say that this is one hell of a sonic roller caoster good for anyone with an open mind and a willing ear. I'll definately be checking out this guy's other albums. Peace Out

I've got about 30 Zorn albums--this one is of the 'not too melodic' varieties, but definitely not listen-proof. I like this album a lot--it's very meditative and strange, but beautiful and wonderfully recorded.

Thematically it's like many of Zorn's pieces, as described in other reviews here. Sonically it's different--very different soundscapes.

I wouldn't put this at the top of my must-have Zorn list, but it's definitely ON the list. I listen to this one regularly, and it's great on headphones.

If you're contemplating buying this because of Jennifer Charles's presence, know that she sings only one song, "Lucifer Rising," but it's stunning. As she seductively whispers the vocals, she is backed by a female choir: one of the best tracks on the album. The rest are instrumentals, ranging from percussion workouts to a death-metal thing (fortunately, one of the shorter tracks). A fine album to own, whatever your tastes, and a must for those of us who worship Jennifer Charles.

Everything Zorn does is brilliant. This release is no exception. On IAO we are on a carriage ride through the world of Aleister Crowley as seen through the camera of Kenneth Anger. I believe this is the soundtrack to the scariest film that never was. I have practically everything Zorn has put out and I would have to say this is one of his best. I guarantee that with every play you will find more sounds and textures to explore. Zorn is the man and this is the album. Buy it.