Polish Night Music

Night Envelope

     

'Polish Night Music' is a thing of wonder. Recently, filmaker and artist David Lynch has ventured further and further into sonic experimentation-- and we are to be glad for this. After the humorously raw 'Blue Bob,' the threatening drone-scales of 'Mulholland Drive,' the thick despair hanging about the spaces of 'Inland Empire' and the meticulously constructed terrain of choked factory nostalgia with 'The Air Is On Fire,' we have, as Mr. Lynch would say, "pure bliss" with the mysteries presented on this album. Together with Mr. Zebrowski, Lynch improvises a poetic hallucination of night that is at once cosmic and microcosmic, ethereal and material, moored and unmoored. Like many of Mr. Lynch's films, it is noir to be sure, but so much more. What is achieved here is a space within which to conjure all manner of narratives. The attendant possibilities speak not to a music that is blank, nor just ambient-- no, this is not sonic wallpaper: it could never play in an elevator, nor in a car. Rather, this is a finely-crafted space that knows the boundaries it defines, for we the listeners to occupy for a finite space of time. Although improvised, Mr. Lynch and Mr. Zebrowski possess a very keen sense of composition, knowing how far to take something, and for how long. This is a piece that has emotional integrity, as one senses the qualities Lynch strives for, behind each passage. Although not as detailed in the mixing and layering as 'The Air Is On Fire,' this is a far more abstracted and I would argue more successful work, because of its restraint. For the dark beauty of 'Polish Night Music' is arrived at through the economy of its means to conjure so much with such a minimal, consistent tone. The violence under it all is played out with a grace that does away with apparent editing tricks or shock effects. This is a work that gently carries you into dark places; it works on you in very subtle ways. Alan Splet would be proud. Listen to this at night, in the dark, in a chair, with headphones. Close your eyes. You will be greatly rewarded. I look forward to more of David Lynch's explorations in sound.