Cargo Records

Purified by the fire

"I aspire to a beauty which is ecstatic and perpetual, while at the same time being concretely human and emotionally profound"
-Henry Flynt, 1980

Well, the above quote pretty much nails it. Flynt has rather succinctly described not only his work up to the time of the quote but also, more directly, that which would come. Purified By The Fire was recorded a mere year after the essay from which the above quote originates (The Meaning of My Avant-Garde Hillbilly + Blues Music, Henry Flynt, 1980, www.henryflynt.org) and it falls perfectly in line with what Flynt claimed in his essay. The piece of music is a glorious drone of electric violin and tambura. Although traveling the same basic territory as C-Tune (Locust Music) and You Are My Everlovin' (Recorded) this piece creates its own sonic waves. The instrumentation and "structure" on the three pieces are the same but it's what Flynt does with his bowing over the churning, undying CC Hennix drone that really makes each performance its own. Hillbilly psychedelia at its most out. He darts in and out of melodies, milking them for all they're worth before moving onto a subtle variation and running rampant through that. He strikes and he attacks! Purified By The Fire is a startlingly concise title for this music, describing Flynt bowing up a steady, slow-burning fire, one which will smolder into the morning. There is something truly pure about this music, about all of Flynt's music actually. The music, the performance, is so completely unconcerned with everything going on around it, regardless of time. Purified By The Fire continues relentlessly, exploring every nook, turning over every stone while dancing on the heads of artistic bullshit, dancing on all of our heads and trying to shake a little sense loose from the cobwebs and dust.

If you have yet to delve into the music of Henry Flynt this is a grand place to start. Much of his other work consists of shorter pieces with a less-direct Indian influence but it is all most certainly Flynt. Actually, his work runs the gamut from solo violin to wild and bizarre tape pieces to the garage rock skronk of his one-time band The Insurrections. There is a definite kinship with the music and philosophy of friend Tony Conrad but Flynt's is decidedly more rustic and backwoods. Did they ever collaborate musically? Holy Christ would that be a glorious amalgam of sonic fuckery! Maybe they did and maybe the reel-to-reel was rolling. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

It was only a few years after the recording of this performance that Flynt abandoned playing music. And it would be another 16 years before any of his music was commercially released. Now there are at least ten CD's of his music available. I have damn near all of 'em and for the most part each one is exceptional. They document an anomaly of Music. I have never come across music quite like that of Henry Flynt, it's a strange and refreshing breath of dusty air. I hope the bulging stream of archival recordings continues to flow unabated.

"It is the American style to be informal and audacious and slightly raucous-to have the charm and idiosyncratic complexity which come from being self-taught rather than academically taught"
-H.F. 1980

- Adam Richards | 2005-06-01 - indieworkshop.com