(2020) Lustmord & Nicolas Horvath – The Fall: Dennis Johnson’s November Deconstructed


Review:
The Fall is a deconstruction of November by Dennis Johnson. Written for solo piano in 1959, November is the first example of minimalist music composition and was the inspiration for La Monte Young’s The Well-Tuned Piano (1964). The 66-minute piece is a collaboration between legendary artist Lustmord and renowned classical pianist Nicolas Horvath, in which they reduce Johnson’s original November to its core element and place it in a landscape of complimentary sound. The Fall echoes November, but with further resonance. Recorded in May-June 2019 in Los Angeles, and Misy-sur-Yonne, France. Lustmord, active since 1980, was born of the original “industrial” scene of the period. With its own distinctive approach, blurring the line between music and sound design Lustmord’s work has featured in 45 motion pictures including The Crow and Underworld and also in video games, television, and commercials. Recently, Lustmord scored the music for Paul Schrader’s movie First Reformed (2019). While Lustmord is often credited for creating the “dark ambient” genre there is much more nuance to its work than what that label implies. Notable collaborations amongst many include Tool, Melvins, Jarboe, John Balance of Coil, Clock DVA, Chris & Cosey, Paul Haslinger, Karin Park, and Robert Rich. Nicolas Horvath, an unusual artist with an unconventional résumé, pianist, and electroacoustic composer is known for his boundary-less musical explorations. Horvath is both an enthusiastic promoter of contemporary music — he has commissioned numerous works (including no fewer than 120 as part of his Homages to Philip Glass project in 2014) and collaborated with leading contemporary composers from around the world, including Alvin Lucier, Mamoru Fujieda, Jaan Rääts, Alvin Curran, and Valentyn Silvestrov — and a rediscoverer of forgotten or neglected composers such as Moondog, Nobuo Uematsu, Germaine Tailleferre, François-Adrien Boieldieu, Hélène de Montgeroult, Jean Catoire, Karl August Hermann.





Track Listing:
1.The Fall Part I 20:40
2.The Fall Part II 14:36
3.The Fall Part III 15:23
4.The Fall Part IV 15:34


Media Report:
Genre: ambient, classical
Country: Belgium
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits