A marvellous first-time release on the Paris label WeWantSounds: Dreamachine by Brion Gysin – beat poetry set against compelling grooves. The poet, inventor, painter and writer Brion Gysin is regarded as a godfather of the Beat Generation; together with William S. Burroughs, he developed the cut-up technique and also conceived the Dreamachine – a stroboscopically flickering light carousel whose visual stimuli are meant to induce dream states in the viewer.
Gysin also made music, among others with Henry Chopin and Don Cherry. The French musician and producer Ramuntcho Matta produced some of it, including the recording of Dreamachine. The 32-minute track now appears in remastered form. Its rhythm feels like Afrobeat out of the school of Fela Kuti, paired with a guitar motif that recalls Nigerian jùjú music. Music and poetry blur into one another, without either element taking centre stage. Over its full duration, a trance-like state emerges, not unlike prolonged contemplation of the rotating Dreamachine itself. The release also includes the bonus piece »The Door«, on which the marvellous free-jazz player Steve Lacy unfolds his minimal saxophone playing around Gysin’s poetry with characteristic freedom.
Dreamachine
