Album reviews
Dream Interpretation
Review by Ken Clark
Dream Interpretation is the second of a series of three collections of recordings made by Tony Conrad in the mid-sixties of John Cale's experimental works. There is certainly a much greater diversity of sonic experimentation in this collection than in the first assemblage. It is unfortunate that this material was unavailable and unheard for so long but we are nevertheless grateful it has been released at all. With this collection the legendary diversity is apparent. Its experimentation with sound certainly sounds as adventurous as when it was originally recorded. It is very difficult to classify this material as "good" or "bad". The real question is "Is it successful in what it attempts to do?" These are not pieces one listens to for their beauty or to relax on a Sunday morning with the newspapers. Rather they are an exercise in sonics that either "works" or it does not. When it works there is actually a great deal of depth to the pieces and in the harmonies and disharmonies suddenly things begin to be heard between nodal lines in the drones that can be quite breathtaking. When it fails it is dissonant without any "payback" for enduring the whole length of the work. Unfortunately there is no objectivity and different listeners may find different pieces more appealing.
What I will try to do is describe each piece as much as they can be described. If found this collection much more interesting than the first and some of these pieces quite impressive.
- Dream Interpretation: John Cale: viola, Tony Conrad: violin: As with many of these pieces, it starts out with a crackling electrical distorted noises and almost static explorations of the possibilities within the sounds, moving ever so slightly, bowing across the drone looking for the universal om sound.
- E-Catherdra: JC: organ. This piece is a shimmering pulse, like a 1950's science fiction soundtrack with a solitary beauty. Once the general drone is established you can hear Cale play around it looking for themes.
- [Untitled]: JC: piano. This one is very interesting. The famous "prepared piano" is used where random objects are placed on the piano and the instrument is "played" in a non-conventional way. You can hear Cale coaxing all sorts of sounds from the instrument with percussion and orchestral effects. It could be the soundtrack to a film noir thriller ending in white noise.
- Carousel: JC: electronic sounds. One can only imagine the primitive devices used to extract these sounds. This one consists of scratching pulses, quite idyllic like a violin swaying or the distant sounds of the orchestra on the Titanic.
- A Midnight Rain of Green Wrens at the World's Tallest Building: JC: viola, Tony Conrad: violin. A gypsy dance with gamelan violins banging off each other.
- Hot Scoria: JC: guitar, Angus Maclise: cimbalom. Busts of white noise searching to form a continuous arc of sound, marvellous.
This collection is John Cale's version of music for films never made.