Arthur Jarvinen/Miroslav Tadic
Endless Bummer
(Lakefire)

I’m quite ashamed to say that I was totally unaware of the work of Arthur Jarvinen, including his work with the California E.A.R. Unit. And I would have remained unaware, save for the fact that we both know composer and bassist extraordinaire Jack Vees.

Lakefire Records is Jarvinen’s personal imprint – a place where he can put out projects that are obviously "uncommercial" – but that I think are unique enough to deserve a listen. You could be surprised!

Released last year, Sgt. Pekker – does it remind you of something? – was a project dedicated to – you guessed it – The Beatles. Definitely not a pastiche, the album presented a series of melodic themes, lyrics and characters which "closely resembled" some very famous records by that group, along the way adding comments and other material. A subtle, affectionate work, Sgt. Pekker obviously needed the right background to be really understood – and fully appreciated.

Endless Bummer suffers for the same reason, albeit in a minor way. Composed by Jarvinen, mostly played by Miroslav Tadic – who played all the guitars, and recorded, mixed and produced the whole work – Endless Bummer sounds to me like a memory (or a meditation?) of some typical sixties themes, with the guitars timbres pointing in the general direction of surf, though the structure of Part One (at 24′, the longest of the three of which the piece is made of) points in the general direction of a bizarre mutational kind of minimalism, where timbres, echoes and volumes make for a kind of "narrative". (Sounds strange, uh? Well, wait til you hear the Hammond Solovox on Part Two!) I simply liked these pieces quite a bit – they can appear "elementary" but there’s a kind of maturity that is really apparent, provided one gives them the right attention.

Beppe Colli


© Beppe Colli 2003

CloudsandClocks.net | Sept. 7, 2003