Avant blues/American Primitive/komische wunderkind Ignatz, aka Belgian musician Bram Devens, breaks the habit of a lifetime and throws the world a loop with his 20th (I think?) album, I Don't Know,switching out his trusted guitar (for the most part) for the family piano, and in the process finds new pathways for his already explorative long-standing sound. Is piano soli a thing? Devens certainly makes a case for it here, relying on circular, raga-like motifs that ebb and flow in psychedelic fashion while he croons along varying songs of longing. Though the instrumentation may have changed, the results are familiar to the Ignatz canon, sounds sent from the cusp of the night's void, rife with despair and desire and strange self-reflection, like Jandek's haunting 'I'm Ready' reframed by a Sun Araw production. The title itself captures that sense well, its own Socratic paradox that finds its truth in facing the unknown, a sentiment you might also find mirrored in the shift from the comfort of the guitar to the less familiar piano. Whatever Devens' intention, the end results are undeniably affecting, the kind of dark night of the soul music making that's equal parts wallowing in the mire and pure cathartic release. One of Devens' best.
FFO: Jandek, Tom Waits, Sun Araw
