Vivenza

There's a growing consensus that the term "guilty pleasure" is an unhelpful one. It holds that we should embrace the music we love, that if we are pure of heart then all our faves should be unproblematic. Should should should. It is not a consensus to which I subscribe.

Aérobruitisme Dynamique is an extraordinary piece of music by the French composer Jean-Marc Vivenza. His work sometimes gets classified as industrial, but he sees it as continuation of the bruitisme of Russolo and the futurists. This track dates to 1994 and is made almost entirely of the sound of jet engines. 16 minutes of whirring turbine noises certainly isn't for everyone, but where Vivenza triumphs is by making his music so extraordinarily physical. These don't sound like abstract jets. They sound like part of the real world, and we are right there amidst them. His work is like Stockhausen's in that the listener is not some separate entity but right there in the middle of the action.

And while I love the sound and the artistry of this, I cannot help but be wary. As we all know, the futurists were absorbed into the Italian fascist party, and those who seek to continue their work ignore this at their peril. And Vivenza did not ignore this, but rather glorified in it. Outside his music, he is a neo-reactionary of the worst kind, swimming in a toxic soup of monarchism, esoteric obscurantism and European supremacy. Some listeners may be able to ignore this when listening to his music; I cannot. This pleasure is as guilty as they come.