Les notes de pochette de Incerto, par John Zorn :
My life has been marked by vigorous defiance and a steadfast refusal to compromise — a life of fierce independence, of swimming upstream, always against the grain. The rebellion began at home against my parents, continued in school against my teachers and professors, and then broadened in my musical life against critics, academics, promoters, label executives, club owners, grant panels — any authority figure or gatekeeper that attempted by physical means, or the power of their will, to diminish my vision, to bend me to conform, to strip me of my freedom, or to stray me from my chosen path. But no words or actions will ever stop me from doing what I believe in and rather than distracting me from my sense of purpose, the challenges encountered throughout my life have, instead, inspired — resulting in a deepening of my convictions, a strengthening of my will, and an expansion of my vision and poetics. In my world challenges have always been opportunities.
My ability to say "fuck you" was acquired early, and has angered and confused many. It has been said that through the years I have managed to alienate almost everyone that could have "helped" me. The deeper truth is that their concept of "help" has often had strings attached — strings that threatened my sense of freedom. And the most important thing for an artist is freedom. One profound truth about freedom is that it is not a gift — it must be fought for every day of your life.
My hard-earned reputation for irascibility has helped me keep the posers, floaters, brokers, and users at bay. It has also enabled me to forge everlasting bonds with like-minded artists who enthusiastically embraced uncompromising integrity and dedication to a unique artistic vision, often in the face of outright hostility, antagonism, or worse — a community of outsiders that are on the outside looking OUT. Milford Graves, Lou Reed, Terry Riley, Jack Smith, Meredith Monk, Richard Foreman, Charles Wuorinen, Harry Smith, Derek Bailey, Lee Konitz are a few of the free spirits that have aided me in developing a true sense of inner worth. Exemplars of artistic acomplishment and inner strength, who have often manifested impatience with the ignorant and closed-minded, these artists, along with many others, have, by example, inspired me to work hard — and to put my Art first and foremost. They have loved me for who I am, for what I do, for my strong work ethic, rugged individualism, and for my inborn ability to resist the powerful and toxic societal pressures to conform. They started as major influences, eventually became friends, and will always remain amongst my heroes, along with Blake, Einstein, Artaud, Van Gogh, Varese, Rimbaud, Brando, and others.
One creates a system or is enslaved by another — and the system that I have built and nurtured, through dedication and sacrifice, is such that when the outside world is in chaos, my system actually grows stronger. It doesn't simply survive a crisis — it adapts, it deepens, it improves. This quality is what philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb has described as anti-fragile.
Being popular has never been of interest to me. In the grand scheme, all glory is fleeting, and social relevance largely meaningless. Popular opinion is manipulated opinion. My focus has been, and continues to be, on the work and what is best for the work. Not best for the audience, for the musicians, nor even for myself - best for the WORK. The friends in my innermost circle understand this. They are true Templar warriors, and consistently go the extra mile in making my projects the very best they can be. They also exert an important influence on my life: they inspire. Because music is ultimately about people, compositions are, in effect, platforms that enable creativity. The deepest musical experience is more than the notes on the page — it embodies that feeling of joy, love, adventure, risk, commitment, and exhilaration that comes from the musicians themselves in performance. This is why I compose for, and work only with, friends — true believers. This dynamic alone will lead to transcendence.
Through experience I have come to the realization that being understood is overrated. Once you are "understood" you are, in a sense, already dead. Mystery is at the heart of all great works of Art — and in the magical throes of the creative process one often finds oneself proceeding by intuition, by instinct — feeling one's way — thereby creating work one never thought possible, and perhaps that even you do not fully understand. It doesn't really matter whether the audience likes or understands this kind of work, because the sublime has a life all its own, an integrity all its own. It defines its own form and fulfills its own purpose. And its very existence (whether society understands it or not, appreciates it or not, wants it or not, loves it or not) can change the firmament of the universe.
The work of the mystical explorers, the mystical cartographers, the mystical philosophers, is the result of conviction, experience, dedication, sacrifice, vision, and focus, and of the realization that when you devote yourself to your art, you will make devotional art. This is lofty work — and one must take risks in lofty work because no one can transcend anything by staying on safe ground. This is a natural law. Here is another — when you go way out on a limb and place yourself in harm's way, it is impossible for those watching safely from the sidelines to fully understand what you are doing, and why.
Incerto is about possibilities, probabilities, inevitabilities, impossibilities. As instrumental music, it cannot be seen, smelt, touched, and has no connection to the mundane affairs of earthly existence. It is abstract, like mathematics — and like mathematics, it is a heavenly universal language that needs no translation. It uses neither words nor images, but hits you on an emotional level that is beyond thought. It is invisible. And like so much of that which is invisible — it can live forever.
— John ZORN, June 2022, NYC
