Glenn Branca - The Ascension (1981)

I thought I perhaps should start out with the album that inspired the name of this blog - Lizzy Mercier Descloux's Press Color - but since I'm in a Glenn Branca-mood, I will start out with this instead.


Glenn Branca, originally having studied theatre in Boston, he moved to New York in 1976, where he soon got involved with the emerging No Wave-scene. Theoretical Girls, his first band, that he co-founded with Jeffrey Lohn of the N. Dodo Band, soon became one of the main forces of the scene; they were the most curious exclusion from Brian Eno's No New York-compilation. Lohn and Branca, being influenced by classical music, they always tried to impose classical elements in their otherwise No Wave noise rock.

Branca later got involved with Rhys Chatham, then the music director of New York's The Kitchen. Chatham recruited Branca as a member of his legendary Guitar Trio, which would inspire him to pursue a whole other direction. Guitar Trio's concept was a play on the aftersound of alt-tuned, layered guitars, which would produce howling sounds that could be mistaken for all kinds of things - many mistook it for a noise-drenched background vocal. Glenn Branca would take that sound, combine it with his noise-classical-concept, and go on to compose what would become Lesson No.1 For the Electric Guitar, released in 1980.

The Ascension, usually considered Branca's masterpiece, continues in the direction of Lesson No.1, combining noise-classical elements with alt. guitar tunings, and layered guitars producing aftersound. It opens with "Lesson No.2"; not really similar to "Lesson No.1," but rather draws from "Dissonance," the other track on the Lesson No.1 EP. It is not harmonic, but noisy. It starts out with a brutal bassriff, then moves on to spurts of metallic noise. "The Spectacular Commodity" picks up where "Lesson No.2" left, but soon moves into a more complex composition. After a while it really takes off, beginning an eternal, mesmerizing crescendo - resembling that of "Lesson No.1" - a crescendo that after several minutes, its ending seems forced, but fitting. I consider the following 3-minute "Structure" as a sort of interlude. It starts pleasantly, in good contrast to the epic of "The Spectacular Commodity," but soon, it, too, transform into noise. Another eternal crescendo, "Light Field (In Consonance)" follows. Drawing similarities to "The Spectacular Commodity," it lacks the noise part, it is more repetetive, and it is generally lighter; it sounds like a light field in consonance. Compared to "The Spectacular Commodity" it is fairly accessible, so it's probably better to compare it to "Lesson No.1." The ending track of this, by now, you-should-expect-this-to-having-reached-its-peak-of-epic album, is the title track, "The Ascension"; "the song that redefined the wall of noise." It is repetitive and noisy and magnificent, with multiple guitars layered to sound like they're some sort of tacky organ, droning its way through its 13 minute tar-like substance, while absorbing your light. When it finishes up, it leaves you empty, amazed.

What I find very inspiring about this album, is how ahead of its time it was. This is basically post-rock, or at least something very related, and it must certainly have been very inspiring for the crescendo-post-rock bands, type Godspeed you! Black Emperor, that emerged some 10-15 years later. I find No Wave endlessly interesting, and I consider Branca to be the most talented musician of the scene. After The Ascension, he moved on to composing contemporary classical music, as a natural progression from "The Ascension." His Symphonies are something completely different than his work with Theoretical Girls, Lesson No.1 and The Ascension, but they still draw from the same influences: noise-classical and guitar aftersound, often including up to 100 guitars. After 29 years of symphonies, however, Branca is releasing The Ascension: The Sequel February 27th. I am very excited, and a bit scared.

Note: the above artwork is not the The Ascension-artwork, but a similar piece by the same artist - Robert Longo.

The Ascension