On 'Pompeii,' Cate Le Bon makes meaning from the opulent and absurd

The literary term anti-mimesis describes when life imitates art, instead of the other way around. When critics use the term anti-mimesis these days, they are usually talking about work — be it literature, fine art or music — that gives off a nonsensical vibe — you know, it's free associative, too weird to actually happen. Donald Barthleme, patron saint of the slightly disturbing and definitely surreal, wrote short fictions about stuff like an imagined conversation with Goethe, as well as a certain bad boy named Colby who needs to be punished; he trafficked in anti-mimesis. So, the Welsh musician, makes music that you could call anti-mimetic or Dadaist. For a dozen years, she has made meaning out of high-art nonsense, turning simple, quotidian things into freaky and oblique images, the stuff of heady and sensual dreams.