Black Earth, Red Lights and a Saxophone

Album: Black Earth
Artist: Bohren and Der Club of Gore
Genre: Noir Jazz/Dark Ambient
Year: 2002
Label: Ipecac/Wonder

I’ve always had a fondness for David Lynch movies. The atmosphere, the cinematography and the bizarre and often deranged characters are all things I’ve deeply enjoyed. I especially enjoy the soundtracks. The music Lynch and his frequent collaborator Angelo Badalamenti compose for the films are always spot on in its mood, tone and overall sound. It’s probably for this reason that I like Bohren and Der Club of Gore so much. Listening is like being transported into a Lynch film, a dark and highly surreal experience. Bohren and Der Club of Gore sounds like Lynch’s dream Jazz band as it is ambient, filled with tension and gloomy beyond reason. It like staring into a dark void, an empty vista of nothing stretching out before you, then, from out of the void comes the sound, familiar, yet alien. The sound is the Noir Jazz that Bohren and his Club specialize in. It’s haunting and beautiful and unlike anything you’ve heard before. The tracks are long, many reaching and exceeding the 8 minute mark. But these are long pieces that need time to develop fully. The drums and bass are played by the most patient men in the world, their minimal sounds providing a foundation for the other sounds to build on.

Another piece of this foundation is the Dark Ambient samples that the band performs over. It is the combination of these Jazz and Dark Ambient that gives the music its unique sound. The most distinctive elements though, are the keyboards and saxophone. Jazzy, yet lilting, familiar, yet strange and dark, very, very dark. These men are not musicians but rather dark warlocks who work their arts through musical instruments rather then spell books. It is a sparse sound but a deep one none the less. As there are no words, the stories conveyed in the music are in the titles. These titles included pieces like “Midnight Black Earth,” Vigilante Crusade” and “Constant Fear.” This is music to be listened to late at night, with the curtains drawn and all the lights (except the red ones) out. The clubs this band plays in must be spooky places to be in. Though, I cannot think of anything more Lynchian then a club haunted by the sounds of Bohren and Der Club of Gore. This is for anyone who enjoys David Lynch’s films or music, Lustmord or Noir Jazz. Be afraid; be very afraid of the dark.