Advent

Album review

Advent was originally privately self-released in 1990 in an LP edition of 300, then reissued on CD by Table of the Elements, where it quickly went out of print. Since that time, it has become a legendary example of experimental music-making. It is finally presented again by Canada's Jagjaguwar label with a new essay by Richard Youngs. On the three pieces that make up the work, he breaks down traditional composition over three long tracks. His method is to layer detuned guitar, vocals, and oboe improvisation alternately over a two-chord, five-pulse piano figure in exhaustive repetition. This is minimalism in the purest sense; it is actually hostile to Philip Glass and Steve Reich in that improvisation is as important to the piece as the piano lines. It is angular, dynamically tense, and quite refreshingly abrasive in the oboe sections. The vocal section is startling in how much it reveals Youngs' debt to Robert Wyatt's trademark singing style. But all of this said, for all its chaotic imprecision and anarchy, Advent is a work of shambolic art -- rough, dirty, and startlingly refreshing in its lack of pretense and manners. It is a very beautiful beast of a record.

© TiVo