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Decided ... Already The Motionless Heart Of Tranquility, Tangling The Prayer Called "I"
Truly embracing the concept of “free rock,” Haino teams up for this one-off double CD, released on John Zorn’s Tzadik label, with bassist Bill Laswell and drummer Rashied Ali. His and Ali’s approaches are ideally matched; the drummer is in Interstellar Space mode, delivering repeated waves of snare and tom strikes that do nothing to imply time or forward movement; instead, they shimmer and rattle in place, a kind of cosmic pulsation. Haino takes a similar attitude toward the role of the guitar, sculpting waves of noise so that it never feels like a given “note” or “chord” has succeeded whatever came before; instead, it’s like a sand dune shifting with the wind, constant and yet ever-changing. Laswell is the most conventional structural element, attempting to glue it all together with thick, liquid bass lines. At more than two hours, this is best heard one disc at a time, but it’s a fascinating encounter for sure.