With each foray into the studio together, Jestram and Lippok seem to unite in that space where the third mind exists. Adding to these explorations in the shared field, are the voices of their collaborators which give the whole a loquacious synergy.
An ensouled aestheticism
Tarwater returns for a thirteenth album fusing poetry with virulent blip hop. For those of us addicted to the sounds created by the duo of Ronald Lippok and Bernd Jestram, there can never be enough. Yet they made us wait ten years! Their last album came out in 2014. This one was released in November of 2024, and I first heard it back in January. I’ve been listening to it periodically since then, and each time its roots sink deeper and branches spread further out.
As a reader and writer of poetry, and as a fan of electronic music, Tarwater holds a special place in my heart, in the life of my mind. They have carved out an ensouled aestheticism. It is as if they have “received that holy and spectacular wound which bleeds … well, poetry,” in the words of Samuel R. Delany, from his novel Dhalgren. And the lyrics they employ bleed across all their albums, even as the rhythms of the machines roil and bleep. Not only their own lyrics, but often the words of others woven into an evolving tapestry of web like interconnections and the linkages of dream logic.
This is the opposite of a concept album. It doesn’t seem like there is any one particular theme. Rather, with each foray into the studio together, Jestram and Lippok seem to unite in that space where the third mind exists. Adding to these explorations in the shared field, are the voices of their collaborators which give the whole a loquacious synergy.
Some of these other collaborators are free to come in from the beyond, and are present as ancestral voices of the eternal artistic spirit. The lyrics of the late Shane MacGowan come in on a cover of The Pogues song, “USA.” It’s a very different beast, though from the original, even with the strings. It’s more reserved, plaintive, less vitriolic, and the drums more suitably electric. I imagine Macgowan would be delighted by this rendition. Plucking and shimmering taut wires of metal mesh with flutes and horns to create an alcohol-soaked expressionist vision.
A subconscious zeitgeist and an astral atmosphere ::
While their works have scored the words of plenty of contemporary poets, they have never been opposed to going back into tradition, such as on the collaborative Leaves of Grass album made with no other than Iggy Pop, of well, Iggy Pop fame, and glitch luminary Alvo Noto.
They do so again here with poet Milner Place, who receives a tender recitation and resuscitation on “Trapdoor Spider.” Tarwater made a video for this one, making it a kind of showcase and single for the album. Singular grooves, horns, vibes, and the most amazing percussion transform this collection of sounds and words into something transcendent. Another visionary from the past appears on “All Nuns,” where the words come from a Derek Jarman poem.
As a musician, Alvo Noto returns again to this Tarwater venture, on the track “On Waves and Years” where a deconstructed signal path creates effervescent timbres. A few other collaborators turn up on the musical side of things. Schneider TM lends his guitar strokes to the “Spirit of Flux,” a beautiful train song where the guitar lines meander across a landscape the same way a traveler might be transported across a continent on a lazy train, free to let their thoughts drift as the land passes by.
The song “Breaking Day” has a deep freak folk sound, with detuned guitar rhythms and the shake of rattles. That rattle shake sound or tambourine sound is something of a signature for Tarwater, and for Lippok and Jestram’s work in To Rocco Rot. People really underestimate rattles and tambourines. Listen to how they are used here! Take note!
Tracks like “The Lawn” take listeners into summery ambient landscapes. The same is true of “Forever Blowing Bubbles.” All of the songs are of a gleaming, growing piece. Glued together by a conveyor belt of words that move one along a liminal trajectory, speaking truths from a diverse array of voices, Nuts of Ay give voice to a subconscious zeitgeist and an astral atmosphere. There is much happiness to be found in its reverberant glow.
Nuts of Ay is available on Morr Music. [Bandcamp]
