Blog : Outdoor Bowers Review In Paristransatlantic

outdoor bowers review in paristransatlantic

check out the may issue of paristransatlantic (http://www.paristransatlantic.com) for more reviews including albums by Paul Hood & Michael Rodgers / Mattin & Cremaster / Eugene Chadbourne / Phill Niblock / Roland Kayn /  Anthony Pateras & Robin Fox

Joel Stern / Anthony Guerra
OUTDOOR BOWERS
Pseudoarcana
A lot of EAI these days has that inner city claustrophobia, humming like a substation or clattering like a cotton mill, but there's a distinctly rustic feel to proceedings here, not only in the album title and cover art, but in Stern's field recordings, which range from squeaky gates to all manner of flying creatures, tweeting, clacking, buzzing and twittering. Along with Guerra's explorations of the upper partials of sustained bowed tones, the title track sounds like Arnold Dreyblatt on a summer holiday on a poultry farm in the Gers. Le bonheur est dans le pré, quoi. "Old Whitechapel Silence" moves indoors, with Guerra's delicate pings and tweaks accompanied by a rattle of cutlery and crockery that sounds like it was recorded on a microphone hidden inside a teapot. The harmonies Guerra sketches in on "Rainy Day Woman #5" are relatively tonal, though not as unashamedly so as on his recent solo outing Empty Kingdoms. The final "Avierys" returns to the open air, planes miles above in a clear blue sky, birds singing merrily away somewhere in the distance, but its intricate rustles and scrapes are perhaps best appreciated on headphones. Beautiful stuff.–DW

outdoor bowers is available in the halftheory shop

Added by joel on 1 May 2006