Grasshopper Albums (2)
'The Orbit of Eternal Grace'
Release Date 7/14/1998
Tracks 13
Label Import
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Noise, it seems, can be neither created nor destroyed, but simply transformed; with the relative lack of noise on Mercury Rev's concurrently released Deserter's Songs, the sonic dementia so long a hallmark of the band's sound had to go somewhere, and so it's instead found a home on The Orbit of Eternal Grace, the debut solo effort from Rev guitarist Grasshopper. With guest appearances from other group mainstays like Suzanne Thorpe and Jason Russo, there's little mistaking the record's connection to the Rev aesthetic, although the abrasive acid-pop of tracks like "O Ring (Baby Talk)" and "Univac Bug Track" harks back more to early LPs like Yerself Is Steam and Boces than to the orchestral grandeur of the band's latter-day material. While perhaps not a huge departure, The Orbit of Eternal Grace is still that rare solo project driven not by ego but by the genuine desire to try something different, and its best moments -- the lovely "Ballad of the One-Eyed Angelfish" and "N.Y. Avenue Playground" among them -- rival those on Deserter's Songs. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Acquired out of an interest in the Moldavian jazz scene, this compact disc waited in a kind of reviewer's limbo until a translator could be found to deal with text and credits entirely written in the Cyrillic alphabet, thought to be explanatory liner notes. But the translation wound up revealing not much; the assumption has to be made that these musicians are interested in remaining as obscure as possible, not crediting themselves by name nor identifying the instruments used. There is even some uncertainty whether this is a work entitled Bird by the group Grasshopper, because it could really be the other way around, but has not been credited that way out of fear that this be mistaken for a long lost recording by jazz giant Charlie "Bird" Parker, perhaps done during the period when he was locked up in a mental institution in Camarillo. "Bird voices, my footsteps around the room, they speak to me" is apparently part of the text that is included. Much of the music here is a duet between some kind of small flute and percussion, mostly a hand-held drum that has quite delicious overtones. As for the flautist, the player is brave to take on a program of extended improvised pieces on what sounds like a soprano recorder or the type of cheap wooden instrument sold in shops that specialize in incense and crystals. The drummer avoids any regular tempos and quite often avoids playing completely. The little flute chirps, screeches here and there; the two musicians engage in interplay but it would have to be described as fairly minimal in terms of anything developing. The fifth track, "4Actb II III," becomes terrifically more exciting when it sounds like some kind of animal is joining the duo. "4Actb VI" introduces a jaw harp or rook in combination with the flute, then a clarinet. With so many recordings of improvised music available, none of them exactly normal, it is difficult to pinpoint what exactly makes this such a strange record. Much of it is the pacing, or lack of it, the same factor that contributes to the eerie atmosphere in certain low-budget films. Sometimes it is just the way the music sounds, when the flute player starts breathing heavily into his instrument, or the percussionist makes little random knocking sounds of the sort that kept the Blair Witch Project campers awake. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide
