| Jazz |
Summary:
Gargantua by composer Simon Hanes is a bold and theatrical album blending classical composition, cinematic influences, Eastern European vocal traditions, and surreal humor. Complex and richly imaginative, the work unfolds as a conceptual musical journey inspired by film, folklore, and the absurd spirit of Monty Python.
Simon Hanes’ Gargantua: A Baroque Battle Between Chaos, Cinema and Composition
Some albums don’t merely invite listening; they demand intellectual confrontation. Gargantua, the latest work from composer Simon Hanes, is precisely that kind of album. Its title, borrowed from the legendary giant of François Rabelais, signals both the work’s enormous ambition and its insatiable appetite for artistic exploration.
From the very first notes, it is clear that Hane’s project is not content with conventional genre boundaries. Drawing inspiration from the lush orchestrations of Italian film scores, the album incorporates Eastern European vocal traditions, folkloric echoes, and urban rhythmic delirium. Medieval echoes meet contemporary classical structures in a soundscape that is as theatrical as it is intellectual. Jazz listeners may be surprised; classical music enthusiasts may be challenged.
Yet for those who consider the absurdist humor of Monty Python sacred text, Gargantua feels almost intuitive. There is a direct line from the chaotic brilliance of Flying Circus to Hane’s compositions. Like Terry Gilliam’s approach to music, baroque, imperative, and unflinchingly demanding, Hanes treats sound as a combative, playful force. In Gargantua, music becomes a battleground where humor, intellect, and excess collide. One could even read the album as a strange, posthumous answer to the Python canon: chaotic yet meticulously orchestrated, funny yet gravely serious, absurd yet deeply human.
The track Lucifer / Aureum Chaos epitomizes this approach. Fifteen minutes of relentless rhythmic complexity unfold like a cinematic montage, punctuated by brass fanfares that sound like the tolling bells of a passing era. A delicate voice intones “Lucifer,” threading folk-like melodies through this frenetic architecture. It is humor distilled to its purest form: sly, ironic, but never gratuitous.
Hane’s work is cinematic in conception. It recalls the visionary films of Enki Bilal and could easily serve as a soundtrack to the dystopian landscapes of Les Murailles de Samaris by François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters. His rhythmic section, intricate and almost choreographed, conveys a sense of movement as visual as it is auditory.
This is not casual listening. The album demands full engagement. Tracks like I Am cannot be isolated, they exist as part of an overarching narrative. Each piece contributes to the totality of the experience, reinforcing the sense that Gargantua is, in every sense, gargantuan.
Hanes’s work thrives on excess, devouring genres, styles, and expectations, but beneath this apparent abundance lies a careful architecture. Moments of simplicity emerge precisely because of the surrounding complexity, a poetic counterpoint to the album’s intellectual ambitions.
Is it elitist? Perhaps. Is it cerebral? Certainly. But if art’s purpose is to unsettle, provoke reflection, and balance absurdity with rigor, then Hanes has succeeded. Gargantua stands as a towering, intelligent, and playful testament to what music can achieve when it dares to think like a Monty Python sketch: anarchic, surreal, yet meticulously constructed.
Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, March 11th 2026
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Musicians :
Priya Carlberg
Isa Crespo Pardo
Jolee Gordon
French horns:
Kevin Newton
Noah Fotis
Blair Hamrick
Trombones:
Jen Baker
Jacob Garchik
Colin Babcock
Basses:
Anna Abondolo
Jesse Heasly
Trevor Dunn
Drum sets:
Jon Starks
Matt Bent
Kevin Murray
Track Listing :
- A Series Of Waves Tremble In A Sea of Blood
- Gigantes
- Knockandrow
- Lacerated By A Flying Shard
- The Number Of The Beast Is 666
- Submit To The Fabulosity
- Moirai
- Lucifer / Aurem Chaos
- I Am
- Hekla 1970
Composed, arranged, and conducted by: Simon Hanes
Produced by David Breskin
Recorded by Ryan Streber on December 13 & 14, 2024 at Oktaven Studios, Mount Vernon, NY
Recording assistance and editing: Owen Mulholland
Mixed by Ben Greenberg, April 12-15, 2025 at Circular Ruin Studios, Brooklyn
Album design by Spottswood Erving and July Creek for Janky Defense
Painting on inside of wallet: detail of The Great Day of His Wrath, 1851-3, John Martin. Tate, purchased 1945. Photo: Tate.
This project supported by a grant from The Shifting Foundation
Publishing: Simon Hanes (Postal Relix/ASCAP)
© 2026 by Simon Hanes and Pyroclastic Records