Jon Rose’s "Aeolian Tendency" is the kind of album that will make you question your relationship with wind — and possibly your relationship with music itself. With over four decades of fiddling with the invisible forces that shape our world, Rose has finally captured the ineffable essence of the wind, turning it into something both bizarrely enchanting and utterly confounding. But, of course, this isn’t just any wind - it’s the Australian one, filtered through strings, pipes, and the curious mind of a man who has spent his life exploring the limits of the violin.

At first glance, "Aeolian Tendency" might seem like the latest chapter in Rose’s long and storied career as an avant-garde string manipulator. After all, this is the same (73-years old now) guy who once turned an entire fence into a violin. But this time, the focus isn’t on what the human hand can do with a bow or a string — it’s on what nature can do when it’s left to its own devices. Rose’s Monolith and Tube, his latest aeolian inventions, are essentially elaborate wind chimes for the sonically adventurous, but they’re also much more than that. These instruments don’t just play with the wind; they engage in a full-on conversation with it, coaxing out microtonal whispers, sudden gusts of noise, and everything in between.

The album opens with "First Tendency", where the Monolith starts to hum and vibrate under the wind’s influence. It’s a track that feels like a sonic Rorschach test — are those eerie moans the wind’s voice, or just your own mind playing tricks on you? Rose’s contact microphones capture every subtle shift in the wind’s mood, making you acutely aware of just how unpredictable and uncontrollable these forces are. It’s like listening to a ghost orchestra, where the players are invisible, and the score is written in the sky.

But it’s "Third Tendency" that really stretches the boundaries of what we might call music. Recorded using the Tube, this 17-minute piece is a slow-motion descent into the heart of an aeolian storm. The Tube’s PVC body, strung with fishing lines, becomes a resonant chamber for all kinds of sonic oddities — grating drones, fluttering pulses, and, at times, an almost guttural growl that feels more alive than it should. The whole experience is unnerving, as if Rose has tapped into some primal, elemental force that’s been lying dormant for millennia. It’s not exactly pleasant, but it’s undeniably fascinating, the kind of track that will have you reaching for the volume knob and reconsidering how loud you really want it.

What’s particularly striking about "Aeolian Tendency" is how Rose manages to make something as chaotic and uncontrollable as the wind feel like an intentional musical statement. The album’s structure, with its four "Tendencies", implies a kind of narrative, or at least a progression, even if that progression is more about the wind’s whims than any human plan. By the time you reach "Fourth Tendency", recorded again with the Monolith, there’s a sense of closure — not in the traditional, melodic sense, but in the way the wind seems to have said all it needed to say. It’s like the calm after a storm, where the air is still thick with the memory of what just happened.

But let’s be honest - "Aeolian Tendency" is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. If you’re looking for catchy melodies or toe-tapping rhythms, you’ve come to the wrong place. This is an album for those who revel in the abstract. Rose isn’t interested in making something that’s easy to chew for listeners' eardrums; he’s more concerned with pushing the boundaries of the horizons of sound possibilities, and in this regard, "Aeolian Tendency" is a resounding success.

That said, there’s a certain irony here. Rose’s experiments with the wind, these seemingly random, uncontrolled bursts of sound, are the product of years of meticulous planning and design. The instruments may be at the mercy of the wind, but they’re also the result of a lifetime of obsessive tinkering and exploration. It’s a reminder that sometimes, the most chaotic things in life are the ones that require the most discipline to create. "Aeolian Tendency" is a fitting addition to Jon Rose’s already eccentric body of work. Just don’t be surprised if you find yourself staring out the window afterward, wondering what the wind might be trying to tell you.