Review Summary: A faint, inexplicable glow
Much like the mysterious counterglow that its title refers to, Gegenschein is but a hazy image of its precursor. Although O'Dwyer's approach to pipe organ-improvisation -- meanderingly melodic, hypnotic and yet dynamic -- remains largely the same, the subtle, inexplicable
magic that imbued both volumes of her cult-classic, Music For Church Cleaners, finds itself absent. Instead, Gegenschein seems an image of a frustrated improviser: O'Dwyer at odds with the instrument she's previously controlled with ease. A World Ending’s relatively bloated length seems borne of this frustration rather than any kind of intention; O’Dwyer spending 25-minutes searching for some kind of melodic phrase to complement the lush, droning chords that ring beneath, only to end up caught between JLIAT-esque post-minimalist drone and uncomfortably amelodic organ-noodling. Similarly, 21.12.12 is awkward and tentative, O’Dwyer’s more dynamic playing neither complementing nor competing with the female singer whose brief appearance adorns the otherwise sparse and colourless piece. Yet there remains that sense of honesty and candour that makes her work so charming; every fleeting moment of promise, and every tired stretch in-between captured in its uncensored entirety. And perhaps because of this, there remains a faint glimmer of that aforementioned
magic that has made her work so effective in the past; O’Dwyer forever approaching, but never quite reaching those moments of melodic-insight and discovery. Nevertheless, for all of her seemingly futile efforts there is promise; the gegenschein of her more illustrious works illuminating these otherwise drab, half-there improvisations.
