jadwiga jadwiga
Nick Cave's novel is back in print. Yup, he wrote one.
I first heard about Krzysztof Penderecki because Radiohead (mostly Jonny) have been name-dropping him for years in interviews; wandered into the record store the other day and came out with his Te Deum and Lacrimosa on vinyl for $6; who was I to say no? As it turns out, I was no one to say no. He mines the same melancholy/Catholic/Polish vein as Zbigniew Preisner (the dude who scored Kieslowski's movies), but his orchestration goes much farther afield. There are tone clusters, microtones, screeching-insect tremolos, percussion that sounds like metal objects being chucked across the room, and suchlike Kronos-esque avant-tricks; but he wrests something glorious from it. And frightening. This goes on the list of bad records to listen to alone at night, unless you've been very good about taking your meds. The occasion for Te Deum was John Paul II's accession to the papacy, and the piece was dedicated to him; but I don't know whether the pontiff appreciated it.
