That right there is a piece entitled White Painting [Three Panel], done in 1951 by the world renowned artist, Robert Rauschenberg. (Latex paint on canvas, 72″ x 108″ – Collection SFMOMA.) This piece, along with the equally as uninvolved White Painting [Seven Panel], were intended to “reduce painting to its most essential nature, and to subsequently lead to the possibility of pure experience.”*
(*Translation: cause the general public to wonder if the artist had gone soft in the head.)
Unsurprisingly, the reactions to Rauschenberg’s monochromatic creations mostly involved varying degrees of utter confusion, but the pieces did manage to inspire American composer John Cage to create his magnum opus “4’33” in 1952:
No need to adjust your volume – there’s not a goddamned sound to be heard. Cage’s interpretation was intended to “showcase the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it’s performed.”*
(*Translation: cause the general public to wonder if the artist had gone soft in the head.)
While obviously not as extreme as the above cases, Finland’s Jumalhämärä enter 2013 with their own welt of peculiarity by means of the LP-only release of their second brand new full-length, Resitaali – essentially one long exercise in harmonium monotony that’s broken into four dreary, monochromatic panels titled I, II, III and IV. The intention is apparently meant to paint a gradual portrait of varying degrees of quiet desperation/introspection, but this record does little more than inspire the listener to wonder just what in the holy fuck the other three members of the band might’ve been doing while one dude slowly dawdled his hand over a pump organ’s keys for 35 minutes.
A sample of the prettiest of the four songs offered, “II”:
Heresy? Visionary? Neither, really. Just a wacky choice of direction following the strongly positive response to 2010’s psychedelia-soaked black metal pearl, Resignaatio – a release that scored enough approving feedback from the public to land it on a number of year-end-favorite lists.
Maybe my attitude would have been different had I walked into this release anticipating some sort of alignment with barren Eno or Basinski, but Resitaali doesn’t really approach their brand of quiet from much of an ambient angle – it’s just leaden, comatose minimalism. So, much like those folks left gawking at looming panels of white canvas back in 1951, I’m standing here scratching my head. Hell, maybe THAT’s the sole intention behind Resitaali. If that’s the case, then Jumalhämärä just released the jewel of the year. But if you were hoping for some indication of the band’s former harshness, your attention would be better directed toward two of the members’ other project, Mörkö, who also managed to release an album in 2013: Itsensänimeävä.
