From the legendary Spacemen 3 to the orchestral Spiritualized, Jason Pierce’s pioneering musical output has transcended genre and time. For more than 25 years, the influential artist’s experiments have ranged from drone, psychedelia and trance rock to jazz, gospel and ragged blues, sometimes all at once.
His latest Spiritualized effort, Songs in A&E, out May 19, offers more of the latter, with a metafictional twist: Pierce was almost literally rendered into spirit when a nearly lethal bout of pneumonia found him knocking on heaven’s door as he worked on his new recording.
Thanks to an opportune request by cult cinema director Harmony Korine, Pierce survived to innovate another day, finish his album and score Mister Lonely, Korine’s 2007 indie film about a Michael Jackson impersonator looking for an outsider utopia in Paris…