Zorn: Mysterium CD

Personnel: Kirsten Sollek, Lisa Bielawa, Martha Cluver, Abby Fischer (vocals); Jennifer Choi (violin); Lois Martin, Richard O'Neill (viola); Fred Sherry (cello); Tara Helen O'Connor (flute); Stephen Gosling (celesta, harpsichord); Ikue Mori (electronics).
Audio Mixer: Silas Brown.
Liner Note Author: John Zorn.
Editor: Silas Brown.
To the extent that it's feasible to classify any of John Zorn's albums, 2005's Mysterium would fall into his small collection of modern classical works. The album collects three short pieces written in 2004 for various orchestral formats. "Orphee" is a nine-minute sonata for flute, viola, and harp (Zorn's liner notes credit Claude Debussy as his inspiration for this arrangement), overlaid with tuned percussion and Ikue Mori's electronic keyboards, which at times completely overwhelm the other instruments. Despite some passages that mix beauty and unease in an extremely effective manner, especially in the piece's final third, "Orphee" feels oddly unfinished, as if it's a fragment from an as-yet-incomplete larger work. The wordless vocal piece "Frammenti del Sappho," however, is a beautifully realized motet for a small female choir that somehow sounds equally similar to the early music of Hildegard von Bingen and the vocal work of European post-minimalist composers like Wim Mertens. Finally, the three-part "Walpurgisnacht" is a profoundly unsettling work for string trio that makes plain Zorn's debts to the avant-garde of the early 20th century. A mature and often excellent collection from a man still too often thought of as merely a free jazz noisemaker, Mysterium is well worth the time it requires. ~ Stewart Mason