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| | | erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 052 cd graham lambkin / jason lescalleet “the breadwinner • musical settings for common environments and domestic situations” compact disc - listen, the snow is falling (8:00)
- there and back (4:00)
- e5150/body transport (9:00)
- soap opera suite (6:06)
- lucy song (6:00)
- two states (7:00)
- there and back again (2:13)
- the breadwinner (7:00)
| april 2008 release ; the long-awaited collaboration between graham lambkin and jason lescalleet - their symbiotic modus summed up nicely in this (creepy) image ::
composed at lambkin’s upstate-ny residence (which, by album’s end, turns out to be the third member of the ensemble here), “the breadwinner” sits very comfortably next to lambkin’s recent/head-scratchingly excellent “salmon run” - in that (despite it’s appearance on what is otherwise a label dealing exclusively in improvised music(s)) it is a suite of tape-music pieces constructed out of what would initially appear to be rather banal recordings of daily rituals & environmental disturbance - yet their arrangement & construction (utilizing, from the thick sound of things overall, much of jason’s slown-down tape-loop processes) works beautifully in portraying a clear narrative flow making this more of a linear suite (we’ve walked in the front door - in the hallway -now we’re in the basement - the bathroom - the room upstairs with the piano - the attic - the washroom - out in the yard - away) than a mere collection of unrelated pieces ...
a couple of months on in my appreciation of “salmon run” and i still don’t have a clear/concise catch-all set of adjectives i can use to properly describe it’s staying power - and this one is even more obtuse ; leaving an even thinner strand of clues as to it’s overt form/function (check back early 2009) - i will say that these guys are on their own here ; wading deep in waters uncharted by just about everyone else ; even if i wasn’t immediately swept up by the sheer beauty of this record (listen to the sound-sample), i’d have no qualms highly recommending spending a night or two at lambkin’s haunted villa ...
ps. the lovely lp of robert ashley’s “private parts” - in case you were wondering why it looks so damn familiar ... a red herring ? perhaps ... |
| | erstwhile press release... |
| graham lambkin / jason lescalleet
the breadwinner
erstwhile 052
total time: 49:19
graham lambkin/jason lescalleet - microphone, tapes, casio sk-5
graham lambkin and jason lescalleet are both highly respected artists, with small but intensely hardcore followings. since 2001, they've been gradually moving closer towards realizing a collaborative project, and the breadwinner is the results of two years of recording, reworking and polishing.
lambkin first entered the public consciousness at 19 when he formed his band the shadow ring, in folkestone, a small town in kent, england. the band was memorable and built an rabidly passionate fan base because of its sui generis approach, blending elements of folk, noise, cracked electronics, and surrealist poetry, while radically changing the overall formula with each release. a decade of increasingly skewed and inspired work culminated in 2003's i'm some songs, constructed long distance as lambkin had relocated to the us in 1998. over the last few years, lambkin has primarily worked under his own name, most notably with 2007's brilliant salmon run, a precursor to the breadwinner.
lescalleet has gradually and painstakingly built a compelling discography over the past decade. he uses reel-to-reel tape decks to explore the textures of low fidelity analog sounds and the natural phenomena of old tape and obsolete technology. he is one of a growing list of master producer/musicians, whose skill lies as much in reworking, assembling and mastering the material available as in creating it (or helping create it) in the first place. he has worked with such wide-ranging artists as ron lessard, joe colley and phill niblock, and has released a string of superb solo discs in mattresslessness (cut), electronic music (rrr) and the pilgrim (glistening examples). this is his second release for erstwhile, after 2001's forlorn green (w/greg kelley), and his third is already in preparation, a duo with bhob rainey, planned for release in early 2009.
the material for the breadwinner was recorded at lambkin's house in upstate ny, over two recording sessions. the duo treated the entire building and its surrounding grounds as a studio, welcoming in outside sounds, which were later kept or eliminated as they felt appropriate. the subtitle on the front cover is "musical settings for common environments and domestic situations", layering numerous submerged fragments to find beauty in everyday life.
"jason lescalleet's influence was palpably present long before the average joe knew how many l's were in his last name (or could successfully google it). he spun tape loops with nmperign from the get-go, frequently signified the endings of his characteristically foundation-shaking performances by hurling a nearly indestructible, hundred-pound peavy amp across the stage, and provided the bulk of the "disaster" in legendary drummer laurence cook's "disaster unit 2000". but as the smoke cleared and the peavy met its demise in a white-walled room, it became apparent to an awful lot of people that lescalleet was making some amazing music; beautifully constructed symphonies of decay born of an intimacy with items and ideas lesser minds might discard: tape machines, lo-bit samplers, the tedium of everyday life. his ability to evoke powerfully complex emotional experiences from such muck made a collaboration with graham lambkin practically inevitable.
composer walter marchetti once made a statement to the effect that he was seeking to reach the "bottom" of music. some more diligent attention to this task might lead him to the music of graham lambkin. already marking out a glorious bottom with his former band, the shadow ring, lambkin has pursued a music so removed from prescribed aesthetics that one is flooded by the beauty it seems to ruthlessly avoid. he puts the mundane to tape and carves out its horror, its sweetness, and its unsettling ambivalence. shrouded in a disarming naiveté, the music leaves the listener ill-prepared for its very adult take on being-in-the-world. we are fortunate that humor can be so black, that we may surrender happily and willingly to an experience not many artists are willing or capable of delivering." - bhob rainey |
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