by Gianluigi Marsibilio (@gmarsibilio)
Thurston Moore, in line with his experimental impulse and illuminated by improvisation, builds in Spirit Counsel a test that is pure light, full of freshness. He digs into atmospheres ranging from Sonic Youth to pure black metal. The movements of the record are complex, abstract but extremely coherent with the live experience, which he has been touring for years now.
2 hours and 28 minutes that light a variety of trends of one of the most interesting personalities of contemporary music. The attitude toward repetition is pressing, scratching, and releases an unexpected power. Repeating sounds and rhythmic structures is a way of thinking, of structuring the flow of thoughts and quotations, references and reminders. The work in three acts is inextricably linked to Lee Konitz's thought: "Jazz tunes are great vehicles. They are forms that can be used and reused. Their implications are infinite."
The drive to experiment is tangible in a track like "Alice, Moki and Jayne," in fact Alice Coltrane, Moki Cherry and Jayne Cortez represent three icons of style that Thurston follows as inspiring muses of a work that has, in its DNA, the search for new coordinates of style. The essentiality of the electronic and instrumental parts is functional to dig into the essence of what means to compose and write music today for the former Sonic Youth member.
If the first part of the work sticks to the contemporaneity of these figures, in "Galaxies" there is the search for an astral signal, the last part of the record can be considered as a real invocation to Sun Ra. The search for an ego-cosmic that is completed and integrated with an astral and complex music made of pattern and repetition.
In Spirit Counsel, Thurston traces the threads that bind with the past, the present, and especially with the future. Moore draws a new trajectory with courage, in line with what he has been drawing and creating for years in live shows. Thurston Moore's musical spaces are larger than ever and this LP is a complex work that time will build as a model of worship.