http://www.foxydigitalis.com/foxyd/r...php?which=2319
Text of Light "Rotterdam.1"
Room40
Text of Light is an experimental ‘supergroup’ made up of Lee Ranaldo (guitar), Alan Licht (guitar), Ulrich Krieger (sax), DJ Olive (turntables), Tim Barnes (drums), and Gene Simmons. They improvise over film screenings – this one’s from the International Film Festival, Rotterdam, on January 28th 2005. We’re not told what was showing that chilly, fateful night, but we have a mere 19 minutes’-worth of performance here on this three-inch compact disc, so presumably it wasn’t ‘Dances With Wolves’. I find a large part of the appreciation of improvised music such as this is in the sub and semi-conscious accumulation of expressionistic imaginary landscapes; one’s own metaphysical enclosures of appreciation. So the very fact that one’s cherished (and highly-strung) imagination has already been usurped – cheated-on, basically – by something as base as celluloid, leaves one feeling as if one’s ears are being treated as mere sloppy seconds. This isn’t to
me, it was to a
film. (Do they watch the film as they play, do you think? Or do they face the audience?)
If, however, you try not to think about any of this, and admit the enterprise as sound alone, you’ll undoubtedly enjoy your 19 minutes much more. This is a nice release, but due to its brevity and semi-obscured agenda, it really ought to be given away, to cool people, for free. 7/10 --