Hand/Eye is pleased to announce the release of "The Transparent World" by the Minneapolis-based instrumental improv trio Barlow/Petersen/Wivinus.
"The Transparent World" is effectively the group's first proper release (aside from a live-to-cassette, self-titled CDR limited to 100 copies and released last year on Stick It To The Man/Asymmetry to good responses on both sides of the Atlantic), and contains ten tracks encompassing a wide range of mood, texture and instrumentation.
Whereas their earlier disc explored the ether via electric guitars, feedback and the multitude of sounds that can be derived from a variety of effects pedals, "The Transparent World" finds the group working exclusively with acoustic instrumentation to achieve a sonic landscape that is at turns lush and austere, meditative and menacing. All tracks on the disc are improvised at their core and utilize a wide variety of instruments and techniques, creating many sounds not normally associated with "acoustic" recordings.
Of course there are guitars (both six- and twelve-string), but often unusually tuned and occasionally bowed. Piano, dulcimer, mandolin (occasionally augmented by e-bow and slide) bowed cymbals, the Freeman Monostring (played with a ballpeen hammer) the "rattletrap," bagpipe chanter and various other peripheral devices are all used to create a very singular and evocative whole.
Musically, the disc ranges across a wide variety of styles and influences, but still retains a unified vision and a cohesive sound. Any number of genres can be seen in fleeting glimpses throughout the recordings: menacing blues from the deepest edges of a swamp swimming with spirits and psychosis (as seen in the opening cut, "Buried Under Crows"), avant soundscapes conjuring images of a creaking old house with a will all its own and possible ill intent (the chillingly abrasive "That Night"), long and languid soundtracks toward the horizon at the end of a lengthy and perhaps lucid dream (as exemplified by the echoing piano-laden closing track, "Retribution").
This release rests somewhere between the experimental avant-garde, the darkest psychedelic folk music and the epic 360 degree horizons of pure drone/dream music. Fans of Third Ear Band, Makoto Kawabata's "Inui" project, Six Organs of Admittance and select movie soundtracks will surely find something to appreciate here.
Reviews of BPW's self-titled debut CDR on Stick It To The Man/Asymmetry records:
Pulse, Minnesota
"Bits and pieces from the halls of eternity litter the landscape of this recording. This is solid cosmic trip-out music that expands with a tumultuous torpor. This is the soundtrack to star travel... vaguely sinister with its resounding knells and haunting drones."-T. Alexander
The Broken Face, Sweden
"This new trio attempts more than many established bands ever would risk. And they pull it off, so what are you waiting for?" -Mats Gustafsson
Aural Innovations Ohio
"This is one of those albums that I wish I had several months to hang out with before having to lay down the definitive ink, as it's still landing new goosebumps on me this very second."-Chuck Rosenberg
DroneOn e-list
"This is a sweet one.When things come together, there's a bruised ascetic majesty hovering around it that would make it a fine soundtrack for, oh, driving across northern Utah at dawn (I know *just* where I'd want the sun to come up)." -Jim Flannery
Check out the artist's website:
http://www.somedarkholler.com
Track List:
1. Buried Under Crows
2. Boatman
3. An Unmarked Trail
4. Husk
5. Death's Door
6. Flintlock Tincture
7. That Night
8. Creation Myth
9. Ray of Daylight
10. Retribution
Suggested CDs:
"The Transparent World" is effectively the group's first proper release (aside from a live-to-cassette, self-titled CDR limited to 100 copies and released last year on Stick It To The Man/Asymmetry to good responses on both sides of the Atlantic), and contains ten tracks encompassing a wide range of mood, texture and instrumentation.
Whereas their earlier disc explored the ether via electric guitars, feedback and the multitude of sounds that can be derived from a variety of effects pedals, "The Transparent World" finds the group working exclusively with acoustic instrumentation to achieve a sonic landscape that is at turns lush and austere, meditative and menacing. All tracks on the disc are improvised at their core and utilize a wide variety of instruments and techniques, creating many sounds not normally associated with "acoustic" recordings.
Of course there are guitars (both six- and twelve-string), but often unusually tuned and occasionally bowed. Piano, dulcimer, mandolin (occasionally augmented by e-bow and slide) bowed cymbals, the Freeman Monostring (played with a ballpeen hammer) the "rattletrap," bagpipe chanter and various other peripheral devices are all used to create a very singular and evocative whole.
Musically, the disc ranges across a wide variety of styles and influences, but still retains a unified vision and a cohesive sound. Any number of genres can be seen in fleeting glimpses throughout the recordings: menacing blues from the deepest edges of a swamp swimming with spirits and psychosis (as seen in the opening cut, "Buried Under Crows"), avant soundscapes conjuring images of a creaking old house with a will all its own and possible ill intent (the chillingly abrasive "That Night"), long and languid soundtracks toward the horizon at the end of a lengthy and perhaps lucid dream (as exemplified by the echoing piano-laden closing track, "Retribution").
This release rests somewhere between the experimental avant-garde, the darkest psychedelic folk music and the epic 360 degree horizons of pure drone/dream music. Fans of Third Ear Band, Makoto Kawabata's "Inui" project, Six Organs of Admittance and select movie soundtracks will surely find something to appreciate here.
Reviews of BPW's self-titled debut CDR on Stick It To The Man/Asymmetry records:
Pulse, Minnesota
"Bits and pieces from the halls of eternity litter the landscape of this recording. This is solid cosmic trip-out music that expands with a tumultuous torpor. This is the soundtrack to star travel... vaguely sinister with its resounding knells and haunting drones."-T. Alexander
The Broken Face, Sweden
"This new trio attempts more than many established bands ever would risk. And they pull it off, so what are you waiting for?" -Mats Gustafsson
Aural Innovations Ohio
"This is one of those albums that I wish I had several months to hang out with before having to lay down the definitive ink, as it's still landing new goosebumps on me this very second."-Chuck Rosenberg
DroneOn e-list
"This is a sweet one.When things come together, there's a bruised ascetic majesty hovering around it that would make it a fine soundtrack for, oh, driving across northern Utah at dawn (I know *just* where I'd want the sun to come up)." -Jim Flannery
Check out the artist's website:
http://www.somedarkholler.com
Track List:
1. Buried Under Crows
2. Boatman
3. An Unmarked Trail
4. Husk
5. Death's Door
6. Flintlock Tincture
7. That Night
8. Creation Myth
9. Ray of Daylight
10. Retribution
Suggested CDs:
- Bob Buckingham and Friends
- Various Artists
- Stone Breath / In Gowan Ring / The Iditarod / Drekka
- Various Artists
- ROCK: Psychedelic
- FOLK: Modern Folk
- TYPE: EXPERIMENTAL