Artist: Ergo Phizmiz

Title: The Faust Cycle (or The House of Dr. Faustus)

This section of The Faust Cycle has been sub-titled Culinary Philosophy. The narrator, Ergo Phizmiz himself (which I have failed to mention previously), finds that while he was asleep he has been relocated in the house.  Of course, it has been difficult to realize that this has happened several times, because although he has a sense of being moved in his sleep, he still wakes up in the same room — or at least a room he thinks is the same room.

When Ergo awakens this time, he has an encounter with Mr. Suasage, after having eaten one of his suasages by mistake.  Ergo promises to replace Mr. Suasages suasage,  only to be informed that he is now 200 miles inside the house of Dr. Faustus. From here,  Ergo makes his way to the train station riding on a chair.  He attends a dinner with clocks, pigs, Mr. Suasage, and others.  And he misses the train.

The narrative of this section seems to have taken a turn.  It now seems to have been inspired, or is paying homage to Lewis Caroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass.  And, in the same manner this section uses humor and unique visuals to put us into a new world where the impossible becomes possible.

Musically, this section is highly filled out with works by James Nye, and samples from varying classical pieces — including a very hamronically complex symphonic piece that I cannot place for the life of me (although I am certain I have heard it before…it certainly sounds Russian, so I might believe it to be Prokofiev…but I won’t swear to it).

Overall, this section reminded me of listening to a Tom Waits style piece that instead of mixing the musical and narrative elements ala Alice, leaves the pieces seperate to stand on their own, allowing the listener the space to reflect on each element individually and in relation to each other.

Onwards…

Artist: Ergo Phizmiz

Title: The Faust Cycle (or The House of Dr. Faustus)

This is day two of listening to this extremely experimental piece.  I have to say, some of the things that I initially suspect are coming true.  The narrative is turning into a twisting and turning shaggy-dog story.  As I mentioned on my day one piece, the grandfather of this type of piece is Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.  This is a book I have attempted to read numerous times throughout the years, and have never been successful.  The problem with reading the book isn’t the narrative form or style, rather it is the period in which the novel was written.  I always seem to not quite get a lot of the jokes, an therefore some of the tangents that the narrative is going through.

The other most notable novel which this piece may be compared to is James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake.  However, unlike the Sterne novel, I have never attempted to read the James Joyce novel.  However, I have read several other works by James Joyce, and have enough respect for those works to know that it would take an extremely long time to read, and fully understand.  I know there are scholars who have dedicated a substantial portion of their careers to this one book.

My current experience with this piece is similar to my attempted readings of Tristram Shandy.  I seem to be losing track of some of the narrative elements as we twist through the layers of sound collages and musical interpretations.  I suspect, however, that I may be able to understand the piece better if I could focus on it completely.

I did, however, review the release notes on the Headphonica about this piece, and can see now where there is another perspective to the whole concept.  This can also be seen as an audio form story cycle.   This does make it easier to accept that there are different segments to the piece, and that it isn’t necessary to link each segment to the overall piece.  However, I still have my suspicions that there is more to this piece as even Tristram Shandy can be seen as a story cycle.

As it is, even without completely linking the narrative to the sound collages, I am enjoying the piece.  Whether I am in a narrative section, or in the musical sections, I am enjoying the piece.