David Jackman 'A Cloud of Light' CD
‘A Cloud Of Light’ is the fourth album in the DAVID JACKMAN /
ORGANUM ELECTRONICS release series on Die Stadt, and the first
under his own name. The work sees him returning to calmer fields of
sound which could already be heard on the acclaimed D. JACKMAN
‘Herbstsonne’ (DS119) from 2019, and the following JACKMAN ‘Silence
In That Time’ (DS123) from 2020. Again the sounds of Tampura, Organ,
Piano, Bells and Crows are the chosen sound sources, overlaid and
structured to form a tapestry of shifting textures.
Recorded in 2023 and edited by Alan Jones at RMS Studios in South
London, the CD comes in a 4-panel Digisleeve with graphic artwork by
Jonathan Coleclough.
UK-based composer and visual artist David Jackman began his career in
the late 1960s in the experimental group Scratch Orchestra, co-founded
by Cornelius Cardew. He started recording solo work in the late 1970s,
mostly on self-released cassettes in very small numbers. In the early
1980s he established his main project, Organum, which eventually
evolved into a new version under the name ORGANUM ELECTRONICS
in 2019. Since 2019 five albums were released by Japanese imprint
Siren Records, followed by (so far) four albums on Die Stadt.
This is the fourth of seven albums which are scheduled for release on
Die Stadt until the end of 2024. Apart from several albums under the
ORGANUM ELECTRONICS moniker these will also include works
under David Jackman’s own name. A subscription to the complete series
including an exclusive Bonus album is available directly from Die Stadt.
REVIEW by Frans DE Waard from Vital Weekly : Die Stadt releases a bundle of his works, and these two new ones are the third and fourth one. Here, too, we encounter the same kind of repetition. In 'A Cloud Of Light', for which Jackman uses his Christian name. Here, he works with the limited sound palette from the recent years. A drone, Shruti-like, some low gong sound, the occasional bang on the piano, a church bell and some crows flying overhead. The drone is the continuous thing here; the others appear at irregular intervals. The whole work is slow and majestic. The music has a funeral aspect, like a black-and-white picture from an Edgar Allen Poe story. It is very similar to much of his recent work, and it is hard to figure out the difference(s). All of this fits my pop-art theory. I love this mystique and playing around with similar ideas and notions. I am sure this mystery will never be unravelled.
REVIEW by Massimo Ricci on Touching Exremes : It can be stated with confidence that A Cloud of Light represents a pinnacle of contemporary minimalism. Unambiguous structure and harmonic profundity combine, producing extraordinary beauty. The composition is built upon five voices: tampura, organ, piano, bell, crows. In about 41 minutes, the piece summarizes Jackman’s investigation of multiple instrumental resonances for the purpose of discovering one’s transcendent dimension within Sound. The track was repeatedly listened to in the days preceding this review, and it proved an effective means of depurating the inmost core from various kinds of residues. To begin with, those caused by the exposure to low-level music, too often unintentionally absorbed in our daily lives. Or else, the remnants of inconsistent logic conveyed by the meaningless circumlocutions with which the average person fills the mouth, and saturates the ears of unwilling receivers. In keeping with his healthy habits, Jackman leaves the outcome of his experimentation to speak for itself, neither defining nor imposing any particular interpretation. Without the need of violet lights or dream houses, our sensibilities are effectively aligned with a more consonant equilibrium; this is achieved via sustained drones expertly captured through close miking, thereby enhancing the full resonant potential of each instrument.
