The rapid and frightening growth of Spiritualism in the late 18th century earned Western New York one of its many nicknames. New ideas spread like wildfire, setting the region ablaze with religious fervor — hence, the “Burned-Over District” was born.
Experimental musician Jeff Fose titled his new collection “Burned-Over,” though the minimal noise compositions better embody the frigid conditions Rochester endures for half the year. The 12-minute EP found a home on Carbon Records in late January.
Fose releases music as The Dipper Stove, a phrase found on the first page of Cormac McCarthy’s grim novel “Blood Meridian.” As such, “Burned-Over” has every opportunity to sound dire.
Instead, Fose opts for small slivers of joy and whimsy in the literal noise. It’s Brian Eno’s “Music for Airports” reinterpreted in a frozen Genesee Valley landscape.
Opener “The Seer Emerges” sets up a duality central to the EP: colorful hope in the face of an unrelenting abyss. Here, hope warbles as piano notes while guitar noise stands in for darkness. It sounds like R.E.M.’s “New Orleans Instrumental No. 1” done by Scandinavian doomers.
The title of “Table-Rapping” nods to the Fox sisters, breakout stars of the Spiritualist movement who communed with the dead via a cracking clamor that may have been their joints.
The last song, “Go Into a Superior Condition,” references 1800s hypnotism practitioner Andrew Jackson Davis, also known as the “Poughkeepsie Seer.” Musically, it mesmerizes. Snatches of a politically tinged broadcast are eventually drowned out by a single electric guitar note. One drone replaces another.
Notably, Davis helped define the concept of a “Summerland,” a non-religious view of an afterlife. Here in the snow, Fose’s music likewise keeps the promise of warm life kicking amid cold stasis. “Burned-Over” sounds like sudden sunlight on an icy winter day.
Patrick Hosken is CITY’s arts reporter. He can be reached at patrick@rochester-citynews.com.
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
