John Zorn - Pellucidar - A Dreamers Fantabula

Kicking off 2026 with a belated post.

For my 30th Birthday I went and saw John Zorn live. He was doing a tour for his 60th birthday and it was a collaboration/retrospective of his career. It went for 3 hours and included a bunch of guests including Mike Patton and Mark Ribot. The crowd was one of the wildest mixes I'd seen at a fancy show including a bunch of metal heads, Adelaide establishment boomers next to classical students peaking on E, jazz chin strokers and guitar nerds. The show was brilliant but I wish I could remember more from it.

Most of the Zorn albums are on CD with only a handful on vinyl. This album is the more accessible Zorn stuff with the Dreamers. The songs are apparently inspired by the imaginary worlds of fantasy literature, a genre I’m not super keen on. But it’s not LOTR singing about walking to a mountain or anything. This blends your usual Dreamers sounds effortlessly with Jazz, samba, soul, surf guitars etc.

All the Zorn / Book of Angles / Dreamers packaging is stunning and this album has so many thoughtful details including little embossed stars and planets on it, cute label, and illustrations by Heung-Heung Chin - the designer for Zorn’s Tzadik label. I love little details like that on albums.

#records #vinyl #nowplaying #nowspinning #music
#JohnZorn #dreamers # Tzadik #jazz #MikePatton #MarkRibot.