a beginning or a next

perhaps jazz-ly, but so by improvisation and not by way of the jazz ‘standard’—histories being perplexed by momentary perceptions--“a huddle of saints and angels waits to be worked”—Nielsen’s mixage is itself a working, out and through the saints and angels that wait—working by integrations and inclusions--the vitality of these acts. As Nielsen brings layers and splices to surface, we are compelled. Sometimes by abruptness and sometimes gentler--sometimes leaving us with blanks (literal space on the page) and sometimes leaving us with gaps (sudden or subtle stoppages in rhythmic flow)—we move through Nielsen’s document where supple meat makes new motions—we begin to pant--pant to de-limit, to engage—“and wound itself around the majestic book”—we recognize ourselves as coming closer to, by way of “the most wonderful specimen of composition.”

-j/j hastain