Dusted Magazine Reviews "Words and Silences"

Performing on the front porch at Thomas Merton’s hermitage. Photo: Kevin Davison.

A quick note to say that Jason Bivins wrote a kind and insightful review of Words and Silences for Dusted Magazine. Bivins is a specialist in religion and American culture and a professor at North Carolina State University. He also has a long history of writing about music, and is an improvising musician as well (with recordings on Family Vineyard among other indie labels). So, Bivins has an ideal background to understand and write about both Thomas Merton’s words and the music on the album.

Here is what Bivins has to say on Merton: “Whether or not you have any familiarity with Merton’s thinking, or his far-reaching influence on religious pacifism and the contemplative tradition, it’s easy to just nestle in and bathe in the words as if they were another instrument. Merton speaks with an assured baritone, his diction unfailingly patient. The recordings are almost all accompanied with the sounds of the natural world, frequently birds, or rainfall, or a running brook. On ‘Sound of an Unperplexed Wren,’ for example, he at length simply states ‘no comment necessary’ before cycling through names of sub-species familiar no doubt to birdwatchers. He reads a Beckett fragment, riffing briefly on the importance of how writing sounds. These moments of clarity and frank observation, though, are outweighed by Merton’s ruminations on the perplexity of everything, or meditating on how it is possible for one human to identify with another.”

I enjoyed these thoughts, and the qualities of Merton mentioned here are exactly what drew me to the recorded material, and to Merton’s voice. I also very much appreciated Bivins’ words about the music. He understood what I was after: music to reflect and complement the depth and beauty of Merton’s improvised meditations on nature, philosophers, mystic traditions, and the mysteries of the universe.

And finally, here are the review’s concluding notes: “In [these] fractious times, I found myself not just compelled but consoled by this music. Harnetty’s writing is pure, though never necessarily hymnal, and Merton’s generosity of spirit and his candor can be a balm. Whether he discusses Mary Lou Williams or Michel Foucault, he is invariably drawn to what lies outside of himself: the hawk waiting by the cross in a poplar tree, on the morning of Pentecost; or the idea of examining fragments, seeing not just difference but the possibility of making mosaics.”

I especially appreciate the observation that Merton grounds his internal thoughts and ideas first in something “outside of himself.” Again and again I saw and heard this in his writing and on the tapes: before jumping to philosophical or abstract thoughts, he takes a moment to use his senses and to simply observe what is around him: a bird, a tree, the wind, the moon. And just as often, he will come right back to these things after finishing a thought. It is a continual back and forth movement, and that movement helps him stay grounded and connected to the world.

Many thanks to Bivins and to Dusted Magazine for taking the time and space to reflect on the Words and Silences project. As always, you can listen to the album here:

Best wishes, and happy listening,

Brian