Jim Fox's
Last Things was the first CD released on the reborn new music label Cold Blue (which released LPs in the early '80s). The album collects two long works. "The Copy of the Drawing" (40 minutes) was recorded in 1992 with Fox on electronics and the voice of Janyce Collins. She whispers fragments from the book No One May Ever Have the Same Knowledge Again: Letters to Mt. Wilson Observatory 1915-1935. Cosmological and theological questions enter the listener's ear as if uttered by one's lover while soundscapes build an uncertain atmosphere that wavers between cosmic void and ghostly presence. Strangely enticing, although a little long. The second piece is "Last Things" (21 minutes). It showcases Fox on piano and electronics providing soundscapes with the help of
Chas Smith (pedal steel guitar) and
Rick Cox (glass guitar), while Marty Walker plays a written bass clarinet part. The stormy bass notes of the piano at the beginning of the piece set a disquieting mood. The soloist's part is not unlike the voice's on the previous track: intimate, soft, fragmented. The piece evolves in sections with the bass clarinet's range moving a bit higher every time. Fox achieves an impressive balance between delicate and troubled. ~ François Couture