BANGA

Touching an art

The show business and art have sunk into relationship so complex that it is hard to say if they are friends or enemies now, if they are a family or strangers who do not care for each other. And when artists of today are judged by their banking accounts, huge sales and appearances in scandalous videos, it seems that the answer really lies on the surface. And it all would be clear long ago and no questions would arise ever again, if it were not for those music works which tempt you to call them works of art. At least, that is what you think, that is the only idea you have when you are holding an album with a music which makes you ponder over it, think it through again and again, and gives you a feeling that you are touching something big, deep and serious. It is likely that most of us will feel like that after listening to the eleventh studio effort by the unsurpassed Patti Smith. Wish you could say the ever young Patti Smith, but she is sixty five already, and each of her new works is a special pleasure.

Smith writes of everything like nobody else

Smith could have chosen an easy way and recorded a collection of her best or covers, which, no doubt, would bring her a considerable profit. Instead, the singer released the first album in eight years that presents fresh material, one whose scope and depth will astonish the most experienced and sophisticated. Like her old and best times, Smith captivates with the width of her knowledge, power of her thought, and beauty of her poetic language. Even the title of the album is nothing, but original. Banga is the name of Pontus Pilate’s from Mikhail Bulgakov’s classical novel The Master And Margarita. Who else might have thought of anything like that? Patti is not one of those authors who would confine themselves with a topic that stretches all over the album. Banga opens with a historical journey to the times of America’s discovery, Amerigo. It feels Smith is ready and able to find an inspiration in anything and anywhere. Japanese tsunamis inspired her to make Fuji-San, Tarkovsky spurred her to make Tarkovsky (The Second Stop Is Jupiter), and Johnny Depp’s birthday have heran idea of Nine. A particular focus is out on This Is The Girl, written as a tribute to Amy Winehouse, and a very long song Constantine’s Dream, another variation on the discovery of America.

Album worth trying

If an analysis of Patti Smith’s poetic tricks and revelations on Banga may take a very long time, the study of the musical component of the album is much briefer. The singer prefers to stick to the same instrumental media she used on her first records. We are talking about a blend of rock and psychedelia, simplicity and straightforwardness of Bob Dylan, and profoundness and mysticism of The Doors. Patti herself sings as enthusiastically as long ago. In fact, the work on Bango seems to have given her strength instead of taking it, like the very process gave Smith confidence of the eventual success. And success we can and must call this album. Never working to be acknowledged by everybody, never chasing a top spot in charts, Patti Smith will once again find a grateful and delighted listener who will give all credits to her writing and performing talent. Banga is not an album to please everyone, but everyone must try to hear it out and understand it. After all, that is art.