A Paean to Wilson

FACTORYの創始者トニー・ウィルソンに捧げられた2010年作が3LPデラックス・エディションでヴァイナル・リイシュー!!

ジョイ・ディヴィジョンやニュー・オーダーなどを排出した、ポスト・パンク/ニュー・ウェイヴ期の重要レーベル、ファクトリー・レコーズの中でも、異色かつ孤高な存在として今もなお人気を博しているドゥルッティ・コラムことヴィニ・ライリー。

"ウィルソンへの賛歌"と銘打たれ、盟友ともいえるFACTORYの創始者 故トニー・ウィルソンに捧げられた作品『A PAEAN TO WILSON』が3枚組デラックス・エディションでヴァイナル・リイシュー!もともとは09年7月のMIF (MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF MUSIC)のために依頼された作品で、07年頃の病床のTONYに聞かせるために作っていたピースをさらに発展させたプロジェクトとのことでした。

Factory Records boss Tony Wilson was Vini Reilly's first manager, his biggest supporter, and his close friend. After Wilson's 2007 death, numerous public events commemorated his accomplishments, but Reilly sought to honor him by focusing on the person he knew outside the media spotlight. He felt the best way to do this was to create a musical suite his friend would have liked. A Paean to Wilson was the result. Reilly underscores the album's conceptual unity by using Wilson's voice to frame it, opening with a 1980 sound byte of Wilson playfully quizzing Martin Hannett about his production work and concluding with a politically charged excerpt from one of his last television appearances. The music between these bookends celebrates Wilson's friendship and, fittingly, also looks back on Reilly's own work: the two were inextricably linked, and Reilly recognized that he might have never made his music were it not for Wilson. Consequently, Paean takes stock of the Durutti Column's multifaceted, genre-defying sound over the years, straddling rock, folk, electronica, flamenco, classical, and the avant-garde. Given Wilson's well-known antipathy towards Reilly's singing, this is an instrumental album, with minimal vocal parts covered largely by samples, most notably from Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On." The material ranges from the contemplative and elegiac ("The Truth" and "Along Came Poppy") to the surprisingly harsh electric guitar squalls of "Requiem," where Reilly trades melancholy for raw anger at his friend's passing. Interestingly, the retrospective feeling is also reinforced by the way several pieces rework elements of earlier tracks ("Catos Revisited"; "Duet with Piano"; "Requiem"). Ultimately, while Reilly was clearly left with an acute sense of loss and absence, this beautiful work gives his friend's spirit a continued presence. Not only is this a worthy tribute to Wilson, it's also the Durutti Column's strongest release in some time. ~ Wilson Neate