Sunwatchers
II

New York confirms itself as a thriving scene for experimental and avant-garde music, aiming to overturn every scheme and go beyond any genre definition. In this case, we are talking about the Sunwatchers, a New York ensemble in the same circle as Chris Forsyth's Solar Motel Band, primarily composed of the quartet Jim McHugh, Jason Robira, Jeff Tobias, and Peter Kerlin. As often happens in genres derived from experimental jazz, it is constantly open to encounters with other musicians and collaborations. Their second LP, simply titled "II," has just been released on Trouble In Mind Records. Devoted to saxophonist Albert Ayler, whom they consider a benchmark also on a spiritual level, the group in this album goes beyond the boundaries of jazz fusion, contaminating the sound with psychedelic and kraut-rock elements and deriving from experiences such as post-punk and no-wave to more exotic components like Thai music, afro-beat, and, in general, sounds from the northwest of the African continent.

This interest in sounds from the sub-Saharan region is immediately evident in the album's introductory track, "Nose Beers," characterized by a typically electric and acidic sound, with tempos that are indeed the same as artists noted in recent years, starting from Ben Zabo, up to the inevitable comparison with the sacred monsters Tinariwen, not to mention John Zorn's influences regarding that kind of "organized chaos" and lightning composition aspect. The subsequent "The Hot Eye" and "There Are Weapons You Can Bring" are longer, more structured compositions that pay attention to more contemplative atmospheres before soaring into moments charged with electrostatic energy and mixes of sounds derived from kraut-rock or avant-garde experiences like Sir Richard Bishop's Sun City Girls. "Silent Boogie" is Mulatu Astatke played at the speed of light and contaminated by acidic and noisy post-punk vibrations, "The Works" is a real space-music session where Sun Ra meets the Acid Mothers Temple, and whose urgent and obsessively repeated sounds directly recall the long tradition of no-wave Made in New York City. "Flowers Of The Water (For Lou)" immerses us in a meditative drone dimension that, in the style of a primordial Velvet Underground garage rock composition, then expands into a real avant-garde reminiscent of experiences like "White Light White Heat." I haven't found confirmations in this sense, but the track could indeed be a tribute to Lou Reed, picking up some typical vibrations of the meditative music Lou had recorded for "Hudson River Wind Meditations" and "Metal Machine Music."

A group that openly declares itself as leftist and anti-capitalist, democratic socialist, and inspired by non-violent resistance, the Sunwatchers present their artistic work as an ideological manifesto against what they define as a confederation of anarcho-capitalist gangsters and racist activists currently holding power in the United States of America and throughout the "first world." A critical phase in our history that they try in some way to combat by proposing music whose "punk" character is to be found precisely in being "against" but in an inclusive way, opening both to experimentation and the meeting and crossing of cultures from the entire planet. The proper definition of world music, and in this case, it is put into practice with a well-executed noise and expressionist formula.