Skip to main content

Alvin Lucier - Criss-Cross/Hanover (Black Truffle, 2018)

Major late-career entry for the legend Alvin Lucier here, released on Oren Ambarchi's Black Truffle. "Criss-Cross" is Lucier's first composition for guitar and written for performers Ambarchi and Stephen O'Malley. Ambarchi in the left channel, O'Malley on the right, and they "improvise on a single semitone" producing a woozy and pulverizing tone falling in and out of sync, increasing and decreasing speeds, I hate to say stuff like this but you can almost hear other sounds being conjured up by the thick drone, just around the edges, although at least one of them is the disorienting sound of e-bows on strings. Quite something; to be played loud. "Hanover" features Ambarchi and O'Malley on guitars again, joined by a variety of players on alto and tenor sax, violin, piano and bowed vibraphone. The piece is inspired by Lucier's father (appearing on the cover) and a reimagining of that ghostly departed band. It's slow, heavy on spectral tones. Very haunting and beautiful.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Corrupted - Felicific Algorithim (Cold Spring, 2018)

For whatever it means, this is the beginning of Corrupted's "Hollow" series. Maybe the clue is in the music? Unlike Corrupted's traditional ultra-slowed down, Spanish-sung, Japanese doom metal this is instrumental harsh noise. Still filthy and angry and depressive but sans vox and also more or less sans metal. Both untitled sides are meant to be played at either speed. The result? Meh. I miss Corrupted's brand of doom, this relatively anonymous harsh noise is fine and all but if I'm listening to Corrupted...well I know what I want. Skippable.
Post a Comment
Read more

Abstracter - Cinerous Incarnate (I, Voidhanger, 2018)

I was not aware of these guys, who formed in 2010 as a noise duo, and slowly evolved and added more members and turned into a kind of death/blackened doom metal project. They've got ties to other noise acts I don't know (Sutekh Hexen) and other industrial acts I don't know (Only Now). Quite a stew and the band pulls of something that sounds truly different. It's got a tentacle in each of the aforementioned genres but blends them really well. It's quite hard to pin them down in fact. Big, heavy riffs with a production level along the lines of a sludge/black metal record but sharp instrumentation and just a dirty atmosphere...ambient noise passages separate a couple tracks as a nice diversion...very cool
Post a Comment
Read more

Grouper - Grid of Points (Kranky, 2018)

I've never really liked Grouper much, lots of other wogs go ga-ga over anything she puts out but it all leaves me cold. I wrote her off for a while, heard some hype for this new one, and I'm back to writing her off again. It's the same ghostly vocal samples/quasi religious/hymnal vibes..haunting and ethereal and...nothing that gets me all wound up. Pass.
Post a Comment
Read more