Neil Jendon—Invisibility (2008)

Details

Performed and recorded May to August 2008 by Neil Jendon. Released on BloodLust! (Chicago), 2008.

Band

Neil Jendon—Everything

Tracks

1. First invisibility (2:32)
2. Second invisibility (18:38)
3. Third invisibility (5:28)
4. Fourth invisibility (21:58)

Review

While I was listening to this album I asked two of my kids what they thought of it. “Is this music?” I asked. One replied yes, the other no. It’s definitely art, then.

This is very much an experimental electronic album, in the same ballpark as Mike Patton’s 1996 album Adult Themes for Voice. It’s a fusion of noises.

This is the sound of the apocalypse. It is noisy and confusing, it is jarring and relentless.

“First invisibility” made me feel like I was in a submarine, silently passed through a battle that was raging outside. The calmness is rudely interrupted by “Second invisibility”, an exercise in white noise that resolves to a hum, like the ringing of a handful of Buddhist prayer bowls.

“Third invisibility” sounds like how I imagine being trapped in a storm in Antarctica. It is relentless white noise.

And lastly “Fourth invisibility”, which lasts for a little over 20 minutes, is the most experimental and internally varied of all the tracks. It bubbles and pops and gurgles through its duration. This is the soundtrack for crash-landing on an alien planet. Though, to be honest, if I chose to do that then I think I would prefer to listen to Mozart or Palestrina while doing so.

Conclusion

This isn’t an album for every day listening. I’m not entirely convinced that it’s an album for any day listening. Still, it has structure and dynamics and I do find it rather intriguing.

Each time I’ve listened to it, when it has finished and the silence returns like the tide rushing in, I do know that I’ve listened to something. It’s not easily forgettable. That has to say something for the impact of this work, I guess.

Review score: 65%