I Am the Last of All the Field That Fell: A Channel

by Current 93

Overview

I Am the Last of All the Field That Fell: A Channel is perhaps the most uncategorizable album in Current 93's catalog. Though it employs a vast array of musics, it strategically integrates them in new ways and dynamically adds elements of improvisational jazz to the mix. Founder and frontman David Tibet's present lineup includes regular collaborators -- James Blackshaw, Andrew Liles, Ossian Brown, Antony Hegarty, and Nick Cave -- as well as new ones: Comus' vocalist Bobbie Watson, the Groundhogs' Tony McPhee and Carl Stokes, These New Puritans' Jack Barnett, Dutch piano wizard Reinier VanHoudt, reed and woodwind master Jon Seagroatt, and saxophonist John Zorn. The album's tracks are a suite meant to be played in order, as dynamics, textures, and styles touch, repel, contract, attract, expand, and merge, often disintegrating into sound itself. At times, Tibet's half-sung/half-spoken poetry is framed by musical arrangements that can evolve so slowly they feel static. "The Invisible Church" is driven by VanHoudt's repetitive, nearly hypnotic series of classical changes, dusted by Stokes' cymbals and made otherworldly by McPhee's out-of-time acoustic slide guitar. Watson's ghostly mezzo-soprano underscores the drama in Tibet's text, which is delivered with restraint. The band's feverish heart is exposed on "Those Flowers Grew." Zorn's bluesy alto and VanHoudt's piano erect a minor-key ascension for the rhythm section, angular shards of electric guitar, bass, and flute propel Tibet's growl inside the maelstrom. In the ballad "Kings and Queens," the two singers articulate a sinister eros as a distorted electric guitar screes in the margin. The bass, guitar, and drum vamp on "The Heart Full of Eyes" recalls the Bad Seeds' drone-blues quake, though Seagroatt's lilting flute above Tibet's poetically rich narrative alters that focus. Hegarty's wrenching vocal on "Mourned Winter Then," is the sound of longing itself, decorated artfully by van Houdt's elegant pianism. "And Onto PickNickMagick" is a pulsing rocker colored by soaring flute, stinging guitar, and Blackshaw's throbbing bassline with Tibet in full rant. Dark sexuality and occult spirituality couple in "I Remember the Berlin Boys," a cabaret song like no other. "Spring Sand Dreamy Larks" (featuring a spoken word intro and outro by artist Norbert Kox) recalls the Bad Plus with its interlocking, syncopated rhythms culminating in a bleating Zorn sax solo. Closer "I Could Not Shift the Shadow" features Cave's lead vocals, singing Tibet's words with endearment, sensuality, and resignation, illumined by Zorn's sweet alto and van Houdt's lilting piano. It's a given that Tibet's brand of art song is an acquired taste: it's arcane, transgressive, and sometimes excessive. But as displayed on I Am the Last of All the Field That Fell: A Channel, it's also simultaneously holistic, maddening, erotic, bleak, bright, and most of all, visionary. ~ Thom Jurek

Product Details

Release Date:	03/04/2014
Label:	Revolver Usa / The Spheres
UPC:	0700175736222

Tracks

1. The Invisible Church
2. Those Flowers Grew
3. Kings and Things
4. With the Dromedaries
5. The Heart Full of Eyes
6. Mourned Winter Then
7. And Onto PickNickMagick
8. Why Did the Fox Bark?
9. I Remember the Berlin Boys
10. Spring Sand Dreamt Larks
11. I Could Not Shift the Shadow

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Current 93   Primary Artist
Ossian Brown   Hurdygurdy,Vocals
Bobbie Watson   Vocals,Voices
Norbert Kox   Voices
Tony McPhee   Guitar
Andrew Liles   Electronics,Electric Cello
David Tibet   Vocals,Voices
John Zorn   Saxophone,Sax (Alto)
Nick Cave   Vocals,Voices
James Blackshaw   Bass
Carl Stokes   Drums,Percussion
Tony T.S. McPhee   Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric)
Jack Barnett   Organ,Voices
Antony Hegarty   Vocals,Voices
Reinier VanHoudt   Piano
Jon Seagroatt   Flute,Clarinet (Bass)

Technical Credits

Bobbie Watson   Photography
Ania Goszczynska   Design
George Barnett   Photography
Inez   Photography
Jeremy Kox   Photography
Joanna Deacon   Photography
Nino P.   Photography
Patrick Montgomery   Photography
Russell Bloor   Photography
Andrew Liles   Mixing
Current 93   Composer
David Tibet   Design,Leader,Mixing,Artwork,Lyricist,Songwriter,Liner Notes
Nick Cave   Photography
James Blackshaw   Photography
Pablo Clements   Engineer
Alex Nizich   Engineer
Melon Liles   Photography
Jack Barnett   Sound Design
Ruth Bayer   Photography
Antony Hegarty   Vocal Producer
Seadna McPhail   Engineer
James Griffith   Engineer
Scott Irvine   Photography
Vinoodh Matadin   Photography
Ossian Brown   Design