Critic's Review
François Couture, All Music Guide
After reissuing Jim O'Rourke's little-known 1992 CD Scend on clear vinyl, Three Poplars followed suit with Two Organs, a set of two pieces recorded by O'Rourke in 1990 and hitherto unreleased (and largely unheard of). This archive document takes us back to the formative years of the future member of Sonic Youth. Titled "Two Organs?" and "Two More Organs," the two 20-minute pieces consist of two organ drones, one in each stereo channel. The delicate chords give rise to ghost harmonics and already interact with each other on the recording -- which means that listening with headphones doesn't give you a soundproofed split image of the music. Of course, playing the LP on loudspeakers lets the drones interact even more fully. The artist's share in such a piece resides in the selection of chords, and in the careful dosage of each drone at the mixing stage. Nothing new here, as several so-called American Minimalists have been down this path before, from Terry Riley to Alvin Lucier, not to mention contemporaries of O'Rourke, like JLIAT (and his endless organ drones; see Hilbert's Hotel). O'Rourke's pieces are not static, they keep on progressing, which is enough to keep hold of the listener's attention, and one must admit that, even though this is hardly more than an exercise, it is very gracefully and convincingly carried out. What hurts, though, is the very strong similarity between the two pieces: The same modus operandi, similar duration, near-identical results (although "Two More Organs?" reaches higher in the treble range). There is no doubt that the inclusion of one of these two tracks on a retrospective set of O'Rourke's early years would be very interesting, but releasing both as an album is a bit redundant.
