The second installment in a proposed David Jackman trilogy (preceded by Sanctus, and to be completed with Omega) lives up to its name with a spiritual recording of Hammond organ, tower bell, gong, and processed voices.
David Jackman began Organum in the early '80s as an outlet for noisy experimentation consistent with the early industrial pioneers like Einstürzende Neubauten and SPK. Characterized by scrapes and grinds and other unpleasant sounds generated by raw metal, it has since been refined and developed into a more diverse body of work. Organum has been extremely prolific ever since its inception in 1983. Even after all of these years Organum continues to release new material and reissue out of print works, of which Amen is the former.
Consisting of two tracks both clocking in at 22 minutes, there is a notable spiritual sound resonating throughout the recordings that is not blatantly religious, though musically it could be linked to what is usually attributed to Christian church instrumentation. It is an overall feeling of enormity and reverence akin to Albert Ayler's work, which also conveyed this sense of the holy and majestic without being overt or denominational. The two tracks are based upon long passages of sustained organ drone that covers both the higher and lower registers without a single break, interspersed by brief processed vocal snippets and bells. These motifs repeat through both tracks, which resemble a single piece broken up by an intermission as opposed to two separate works.
As a work, Amen is rather simple and repetitious, but it is within a context where repetition is an asset rather than a liability. The fact that the sound repeats consistently has a calming and hypnotic effect, transcending the notions of time. Amen is the sound of eternity and infinity, characterized by the only text in the minimalist digipak other than the artist and title, "Unto the Aeon of Aeons."
Jackman himself has described this as being part of a "holy"/historical trilogy, which is very appropriate. He has refused to elaborate on the “holy” part of this description on the official Organum website, which is also fitting. I mentioned that it has more of a spiritual sound than a religious one previously, because though the instrumentation is more consistent with what westerners would perceive as Christian church based, but the overall ascetic approach to instrumentation and structure has a notable Buddhist and Zen feel as well. The sound transcends religion into pure spiritualism: Amen is a work that is simultaneously relaxing and utterly compelling.
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