Nate Wooley / David Grubbs / Paul Lytton  >  SEVEN STOREY MOUNTAIN  >  Important  > 
Originally commissioned for Dave Douglas' FONT Festival in New York and  > 
based on the namesake book by Thomas Merton, Seven Storey Mountain is a  > 
record whose layers, superimposed and stretched, disclose an underworld of  > 
unexpected revelations while also fulfilling Nate Wooley's intention of  > 
making "a piece that had a certain feel of the ecstatic to it". This is the  > 
first of what Wooley has planned as a seven-part project using this  > 
instrumentation, namely a trio plus taped sources (on this occasion an air  > 
conditioner, a piano and mostly unintelligible voices); yet it's anybody's  > 
guess if it will reach completion, given these artists' exceedingly busy  > 
schedule. What's truly impressive here is how "composed" this 38-minute  > 
performance sounds, despite the virtual nonexistence of rehearsals prior to  > 
the trio's debut performance, except for the soundcheck. The musicians  > 
worked with a few sketchy directives concerning Lytton's percussive drive  > 
(when applicable) and Grubbs' droning harmonium, but basically the music is  > 
a simple arc structure. It begins in extreme calm, as low vibrating hums  > 
emerge from bushes of humid whispers; movement gradually increases in the  > 
central section, first with sparse notes, delirious mutterings and sinister  > 
noises, then with Lytton swinging furiously over Grubbs' static chords,  > 
while Wooley brings a touch of madness to the situation, roughening the  > 
textures with his gargling hoarseness and abraded clumsiness. The finale  > 
brings everything back to (still charged) peace, giving us a chance to  >
 cauterize any bleeding wound with a relatively balmy ending. What about the  > 
aforementioned ecstasy? Not sure that my immediate desire to repeat the  > 
listening experience to better focus on the murkiest particulars qualifies  > 
as such, but what I do know is that any release which raises more doubts  > 
than it offers certainties is music to my ears.–MR