Review: Six Organs of Admittance + Tashi Dorji at AyurPrana Listening Room
“Artists are disaster relief.”
So tweeted Bonnie “Prince” Billy the day after the soul-deadening results of the 2024 U.S. presidential election were revealed. These words provided the necessary catalyst to attend a concert of live music when the initial instinct was either to lie in bed for days or to immediately join a resistance organization. Fortunately, the desire to be in community with other music lovers won out.
Six Organs of Admittance — the artistic moniker of Ben Chasny — began its latest tour at Asheville’s AyurPrana Listening Room with these personal and geo-political concerns as a background. On this run of shows, Asheville’s own Tashi Dorji served as the opening act for Chasny. Before his hometown crowd on Nov. 6, Dorji delivered a turbulent, single-song rendition on acoustic guitar that featured looping samples and an extended segment of the artist kneeling on the stage to summon waves of feedback and noise from the electronics on the floor in front of him.
Chasny began soon after Dorji ended his own performance, mixing in selections from his latest album, Time is Glass, as well as other songs from his vast discography.
A few weeks ago, the Northern Hemisphere experienced a Hunter’s Moon. The music of Six Organs of Admittance has a similar feel to walking in the early morning when the Hunter’s Moon is setting and while the sun is just beginning to rise, resulting in a sublime blending of light and shade.
Consistent with his studio work, Chasny’s live presentation likewise evoked this effect as he countered warm, inviting instrumental tunes — the opener “Drinking with Jack,” for example — with darker songs, such as “Shelter from the Ash,” which conveyed hints of an apocalypse.
The ominous hints could also be heard in the medley of songs taken from his 1999 album Dust and Chimes that strung together “Hollow Light, Severed Sun,“ “Black Needle Rhymes,” and “Dance Among The Waiting.” This collection conjured thoughts about fallen empires or false monarchs that certainly drew connections with current events.
Chasny also used the medley technique to pair a song with dark themes to another with a lighter touch, as the mysterious, portal-opening “A Thousand Birds” was followed by “Visions (From Io)” that includes lyrics of a narrator telling about “a dream that keeps me breathing.”
Whether it was the brighter instrumentals or prophetic incantations, Chasny’s songs included unexpected chords and melodies that somehow have never been heard before yet are still oddly familiar through some kind of atavistic knowledge of ancient Celtic rituals. It was also fascinating to hear the Six Organs of Admittance songs presented unadorned without any additional instrumentation or sonic embellishment. Instead, Chasny performed his music stripped down, just him and his electric guitar, showcasing not only the strength of his songwriting but also his command of the instrument.
Throughout the night, both Chasny and Dorji provided the type of relief described in the Bonnie “Prince” Billy quote by acknowledging the possible darkness ahead while also communicating the power of art and its necessity in times of both peace and unrest. We in the wider art community need to ensure that experiences like this one are regularly offered in the weeks, months, and years ahead.
(Photo by Kami Chasny)
