Echoes August CD of the Month: Jaymie Rose Hennegan

Jaymie Rose Hennegan Brings You Transition! Echoes August CD of the Month

By John Diliberto

Transition is the debut release by Jaymie Rose Hennegan and if you’ve been following the music of Vic Hennegan for the last 20 years or so, you will find it familiar, even as she transitions into a new life. That title, Transition , has a layered meaning, referencing both musical interludes and personal changes. The two CD set was recorded live in 2023, one at a concert at The Cosmic Crossing series in New Jersey, the other live on the air of the Star’s End radio show on WXPN in Philadelphia. Both are non-stop continuous performances that reveal a new maturity and individuality in Hennegan’s music.

There is a live, in-the-moment, organic quality to Transition and that’s because Hennegan has transitioned in another way. A couple of years ago She started performing without computers. Her early performances were something of a Music Minus One sort of thing. But now, she has an array of synthesizers, sequencers and processors that she manipulates live with no computer screens in sight.

The album starts with applause from a sparse Cosmic Crossing audience, but with “Changing of the Tides” Hennegan quickly dissolves that space into an ambient landscape of waves, gurgling water sounds and sustained synth chords, setting a mood like an Indian alap. Soon a pair of interlocked sequences emerge, and a thin-toned synth solo line begins. It’s brief, kind of like Hennegan wanted you to know that there was some real playing going on. The ambient wave sounds fade out, then a deeper bass sequencer pattern locks into some bell-like sounds and Hennegan takes off on a solo. Wave sounds come back as Hennegan shifts the landscape with morphing patterns, as if the world is mutable. A key change ups the energy and percussive sounds emerge until it all dissolves in waves again. At nearly 17-minutes long it is an enveloping, transformative journey. It is classic Berlin school.  Hennegan worships at the altar of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream, but his sound is more clearly articulated and artfully shaped than most retro-space music artists of the day.

And that is just the beginning, because Hennegan concerts are non-stop. Just as she leaves you breathless with “Changing of the Tides,” she drops you into the deep ambient space of “The Wings of Eternity,” as she improvises long synth sustains and overlapping melodies. Most of the sequencer-driven tracks in both sessions are separated by these more meditative interludes and each has a different feel: from free-floating spacescapes like “Dusk on Europa,” to the electronic cricket-strewn space meadow of ““Floating in Dust.”

While tracks like “Systems End” are more percussive, with a polyrhythmic groove decorated by fluttering flutes, deep synth stabs and solo flights, other tracks are more stately. “Garden of the Sacred Moon” is marked by an insistent layered sequencer rhythm, with a reedy synth timbre laying down a hymnal melody. Hennegan isn’t a virtuoso keyboard player, but her solos are beautifully articulated with long sustained lines and note bends that are perfectly timed to make you go, awwww, yes! This also illustrates a more compositional side to Hennegan, represented by the false ending on this song which actually ends with a more delirious solo.

The Cosmic Crossings set concludes with the expansive “The Cosmic Slope.” It takes a long evolution out of the ambient pads of “Dusk on Europa,” but once it’s established itself, it becomes a wild ride of percussive electronic drums, synchronized sequencers and assertive call and response synth chords. The sequences get more complex, tripping through delays and weaving into a mandala groove.

The Stars End set, recorded live in-studio, launches with a much darker feel, with dark growling synths emerging into long sustained chords that are full of ominous portent. A percussive sequence fades in, and Hennegan solos with a tone like an electric violin. More sequencer patterns emerge, like a simple 4-note bass run that interlocks with the other sequencers. This has more of a Blade Runner feel than the Cosmic Crossings set.

After another interlude, the sequencers of “Inanna’s Dance” fade in. This is another darker piece with some kind of backward voicing that’s looped and ominously plays out. The solo that comes after isn’t a respite so much as a commentary, as that backward angst keeps coming back. It eventually breaks out into a triumphal dance with an ecstatic synth solo. There’s a total freak out in the middle of this piece where Hennegan seems to trigger every effect and sound she’s got. The persistent space squiggles do get annoying, but the sequencers take charge, mostly.

“Spiral Essence” takes us into darkness again, with a tribal electronic shuffle beat and rumbling sawtooth synth phases. There is a interweaving of tonal textures here that is kinetic and swirling like a multi-spiral wind spinner mobile.

The Stars End session concludes with a long, relatively minimal meditation, “Of a Soft Heart,” a title that exemplifies the gentle landing of the track.

Jaymie Rose Hennegan has achieved a new mastery of her sound since dropping the computers. It started with the album, A Moment in Time, her last release as Vic Hennegan, and it comes to fruition on Transition . Although both performances on this double CD draw from similar timbral and rhythmic palettes, they are entirely different, as she truly commits to being in the moment.
The End

Hear our interview with Jaymie Rose Hennegan in the Echoes Podcast.
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