The Boxhead Ensemble: Two Brothers

Kameralistyka / Avant-Garde / Alternatywa
premiera polska: 1995-02-01
kontynent: Ameryka Północna
kraj: USA
opakowanie: Jewelcaseowe etui
opis:
Audio; 2002-09, ocena: Muzyka: * * * *, Realizacja: * * * *
Chicagowska formacja awangardowa skupia członków tak progresywnych formacji, jak Lofty Pillars, Pinetop Seven, 'Tortoise, Terminal 4, a przewodzi jej Michael Krassner. Grupa przedstawiła dziewięć wytrawnych kompozycji, które świetnie pasowałyby do filmów eksperymentalnych.
Pewien chłód wykonawczy i sterylność brzmienia sprawiły, że powstała materia muzyczna, mimo że z lekkimi akcentami wschodnimi, może bardziej zainteresować miłośników współczesnej kameralistyki poważnej niż awangardowego rocka.
autor: Cezary Gumiński

Editor's Info:
The Boxhead Ensemble makes a glorious return after nearly a two-year hiatus, under the direction of Michael Krassner (Lofty Pillars); Two Brothers is their most distinctive & compelling album yet. Superbly recorded by Krassner & Joe Ferguson at Truckstop Chicago,Two Brothers is a modern day meditation on 19th century American musics, circa the Civil War era. Highly detailed acoustic instrumentation dominates the aural landscape, propelled by the bountiful talents of Mick Turner & Jim White (The Dirty Three), Ryan Hembrey (Pinetop Seven), Glenn Kotche (Pinetop Seven/Jim O'Rourke), Fred Lonberg-Holm (Terminal 4), Jeff Parker (Tortoise/Isotope/Tricolor), Scott Tuma (Souled American), Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) Jessica Billey (Smog/ Sally Timms/ Lofty Pillars) & Guillermo Gregorio (Unheard Music Series) An extremely inviting haze emanates quietly fromTwo Brothers, drawing you further & further into its sonic web. You'll not find another record remotely like it this year-- or in any other, for that matter. Despite an ever-changing cast of musical talent, The Boxhead Ensemble has evolved into something much greater than it's low key origin as a soundtrack generator for Braden King's Alaskan landscape documentary, Dutch Harbor. After three great releases, a very successful European tour and film screenings around the world, Two Brothers knits another rich, otherworldly tapestry documenting the evolution of The Boxhead Ensemble.


Boxhead Ensemble
, an impromptu project of the Chicago rock avantgarde, involved members of [ Tortoise ] ~ [ Gastr Del Sol ] ~ [ Eleventh Dream Day ] plus [ Will Oldham ] ~ [ Jim O’Rourke ] ~ [ Edith Frost ] and [ Ken Vandermark ] all assembled by composer Michael Krassner in 1996 to score the soundtrack for the film Dutch Harbor.
Krassner continued to record with the revolving group of musicians to put out the albums Two Brothers (2001), Quartets (2003) and Nocturnes (2006.) The resulting album, Dutch Harbor (Atavistic, 1997), was a collection of austere, erudite, low-key and bleak instrumental improvisations. They were more than vignettes of village life: they were miniature concertos of stunning sophistication.
The Introduction was high-caliber noir and chamber jazz set in an extremely sparse and desolate soundscape of agonizing notes and frustrated melodies. The eight-minute The Ravens, consisting in four guitars dueting with Vandermark’s reeds at a funereal pace, moved that concept into abstract space. The ten-minute Ship Supply was structured in three parts: Vendermark’s agonizing trumpet melody, a lengthy low haunting drone, and a melancholy tide of O’Rourke’s and Krassner’s guitars.
Michael Krassner writes: “The low drone you’re hearing is Jim O’Rourke playing an acoustic guitar through a guitar amp. He was basically controlling the feedback an acoustic guitar generally makes when positioned close to an amplifier. He was also detuning his guitar during the drone creating interesting beating pulses in the feedback. When one note is sustained and another note or string is slightly being de-tuned, you can hear the overtones pulsating or beating against eachother”.
The ten-minute The Valley was also in three movements: a ghostly, disjointed piano-guitar duet, an almost swinging quartet of guitar, piano, violin and bass, and finally a hypnotic lullaby for three guitars and piano. The 13-minute At The Sea reentered rock music from the back door, with four dissonant guitars interlacing over steady drumming.
Elsewhere the music focused on images and sounds of nature.
For The Glory of the Wind and the Water used the instruments to produce droning sounds that evoked the foggy landscape of the harbor and maybe the anxiety of the travelers. Telegraph Hill was Krassner’s four-minute piano solo of sparse notes and sketchy melodies, sounding like Brian Eno on valium, against the sound of the wind. The country-ish Captain’s Bay Hood for solo guitar (O’Rourke), sounding like a defective Leo Kottke record, and Ebb’s Folly (Will Oldham singing one of his alt-country tales backed by O’Rourke on guitar and electronics) were the only obvious tributes to Americana.
Throughout the album, the musicians did not play music but barely hinted at playing music. The instruments emitted notes, but hardly connected them. The descriptive and psychological program did not call for grandiose gestures, but for vivisecting the ordinary.

muzycy:
Jessica Billey; Glen Kotche; Michael Krassner (AFL, Pinetop Seven, Tres Flores); Ryan Hembrey (Pinetop Seven); Fred Longberg-Holm (Terminal 4); Scott Tuma; David Curry; Mick Turner; Steve Dorocke; Gerald Dowd; Joe Ferguson; Guillermo Gregorio; Jeff Parker; Mick Turner; Jeff Tweedy; Jim White
utwory:
1. STILL; 2. FROM THIS POINT ONWARD; 3. WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME; 4. TWO BROTHERS; 5. THE HALF-LIGHT; 6. REQUIEM; 7. SBA?; 8. COME AGAIN NO MORE; 9. EPILOGUE
wydano: 2001
nagrano: 2001
more info: www.atavistic.com
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