The Gazing Engine

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OK, first up, an admission: I am both a close friend and colleague of composer and musician Paul Schütze. I was responsible for releasing several of his records while at Virgin Records and since joining the state51 conspiracy (the team behind motion) I have managed him and performed with him in concert and on record. So, yes, in terms of strict editorial objectiveness, I probably shouldn't be the motion team member to review The Gazing Engine. However, I have no commercial axe to grind here, nor anything to gain from singing the work's praises as this album will receive a strictly limited release. The Gazing Engine has been commissioned by American land artist James Turrell's London-based agent Michael Hue-Williams, as a strictly limited edition work to be handed to guests present at Turrell's "skyspace" The Elliptic Ecliptic in Tremenheere, Cornwall, for the total solar eclipse on August 11th 1999. It will also be cover-mounted on the catalogue commemorating the event, which will be published in September. So, why review it here? Well, because it needs to be talked about; it's a landmark for Paul, a project which means a great deal to him personally while marking yet another stage in the development of one of the most singular and important bodies of work in contemporary electronic music. In his TV history of American art. "American Visions". "Shock of the New" author Robert Hughes singled out Turrell as the most important visual artist currently working in American art, and one of the world's few artists to be able to rescue contemporary art from the dead-end of conceptual art. Turrell commented in a recent UK TV documentary, "I have no interest in meaning", and his work reflects this, representing perhaps the most transcendental oeuvre in American art since Mark Rothko's. In this sense, of course, it's already closer to the realm of music than any with which it is contemporary, and for a musician of Schütze's refinement to be drawn to it is natural. The piece is akin to Schütze's Sitework series and, indeed, Schütze is preparing a Sitework dedicated to Turrell's Rodan Crater project. (Almost certainly the world's largest ever single piece of work, Roan is a vast crater in the Arizona which Turrell has been remodelling for the last decade. Due to open in 2000, the crater will be a vast skyspace, from which visitors will be invited to watch the constant flux of the Arizona firmament.) However, where Schütze describes his Siteworks as "essays" on specific architectural sites, he terms The Gazing Engine as a "response" to Turrell's skyspace. The Siteworks combine music and sound design with spoken word and written text. The Gazing Engine consists purely of music: a series of atmospheres constructed by Schütze from passages played by flautist Clive Bell (who worked on both Second and Third Site) and bassist Andy Kremer, and from his own tuned and non-tuned percussion playing. The results, I feel, are stunning, and remind me more of Paul's organ-and-percussion piece Nine Songs From the Garden of Welcome Lies than anything since. It's not quite as arid as Nine Songs, but it has something of that album's purity; and the percussion work in particular recalls its predecessor. Like Turrell, Schütze isn't interested in the meaning of his work, but with quality . If this makes his music unfashionable in an age obsessed with analysis it will serve him well in the long run. The Gazing Engine would be an extraordinary piece for many other musicians. That we're unsurprised to hear music of this quality by Schütze is testament to his accomplishment. And that's not me speaking as either Schütze's colleague or friend, but as a fan. Sue me.