"In the villa of Ormen, in the villa of Ormen
Stands a solitary candle, ah ah, ah ah
In the centre of it all, in the centre of it all
Your eyes
On the day of execution, on the day of execution
Only women kneel and smile, ah ah, ah ah
At the center of it all, at the center of it all
Your eyes
Your eyes
Ah ah ah
Ah ah ah..."
Blackstar - David Bowie
I have been close-listening to David Bowie's album "Blackstar." I purchased the CD 2 weeks ago. Maybe "close listening" doesn't quite do it justice. I have been communing with this record. Listening to it religiously. Channeling. It is the highest, finest Art imaginable. An extraordinary achievement. I have been subsuming myself into it, taking it in like a High, Holy Sacrament.
It was released on January 8, 2016, coinciding with Bowie's 69th birthday. 2 days later Bowie died of liver cancer. A shocking story. "Blackstar" is an elegy - "a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead," written and performed by the creative being who feels Death breathing over him, hovering THIS/CLOSE.
If Death is always on our left shoulder, it's like Death was leaning in and whispering in Bowie's ear while he was making this record. I don't find it morbid, I find it inspiring. Facing Death, what does a True Artist do? He creates music. Extraordinary, incandescent music.
Bowie was one of our greatest Artists. A shape-shifter. A clairvoyant. A visionary. I don't really want to review the record, but let me give you a word-stream that this work evokes: Visionary, revelatory, groovy, powerful, lush, layered, sophisticated, avant, heart-breaking, funny, brilliant, intelligent, transcendent, other-worldly, spiritual, forward-looking, reflective, philosophical, dazzling, exhilarating.
Luxuriate in the sound of it. Produced by Tony Visconti and David Bowie. Bowie sings with gravity, grit & passion, you hear a singer using his instrument in all it's human glory. He fronts Donny McCaslin's "New York Jazz Combo" and it's just exquisite, a superb band, playing brilliantly, with creative power, perfectly recorded. Lush. The packaging too. Just gorgeous. An incredibly beautiful & transcendent "last will and testament."
"I'm a Blackstar, I'm a Star, Star..." - D. Bowie
