Chris Connelly - How This Ends

CD
1
Part One
2
Part Two

Details

How This Ends is the 12th solo album by Chris Connelly, and it is certainly the most extreme. Picking up from where 2008s Forgiveness & Exile tailed off. In some ways, this is an extension of that, where Chris uses an ensemble cast of musicians, orators and non-musicians to produce something that vacillates between an almost serenely melancholic paradise, and a terrifying hellish vortex of noise. There are no songs on How This Ends - rather one long poem that is both spoken and sung by Chris and his collaborators.I wanted to compose without any regard to the songform. I enjoy writing songs, but Ive done it, and I want to try and move forward. To me, my work now is all about the words, and coming up with the best sounds to augment these words. It doesnt have to be a musical instrument. I have in my mind a very clear image, almost like an impressionistic film of what it should be like. The hard part is making sure that nothing is wasted, that every word can carry its own weight, and that the people I have asked to help are the right people.And the subject matter is no less grave than Forgiveness & Exile. Forgiveness (sic) was about torture and people being displaced from their homes in trying to escape fascism. How This Ends is about death, genocide, homicide by corrupt powers upon innocents. Its about the people who didnt make it, the ones who either tried, or were taken by surprise. The ensemble cast is perhaps the most diverse Chris has assembled;Izi Coonagh (Sugar Bullet)Tania Bowers (Via Tania)James Marlon Magas (Magas, Lake of Dracula)Gordon Sharp (Cindytalk)Zak Boerger (These Wonderful Evils)Bill Rieflin (R.E.M., Ministry, Swans)Brent Gutzeit (TV Pow)Sanford Parker (Minsk, The High Confessions)David Levine (Mucca Pazza)