Review : Stars of the Lid ...And Their Refinement of the Decline

Stars of the Lid and their Refinement of the Decline

The new Stars of the Lid album is a subdued yet emotional affair.... Spanning 6 beautiful sides of vinyl or available on 2 compact discs (with a different album cover), Kranky records' #100 really has it all. Combining the ambient atmosphere of Brian Eno with the rich feeling of Tim Hecker's latest music, SOTL use a richer orchestral palette than on previous albums; from high overtones to grating guitar swells, backwards violins to bass bellows...

"Refinement" is dreamy, like all SOTL albums, and feels like a sweet somnambulant stroll through a pastel-colored park with the sun shining brightly, whitewashing everything and blinding the corners of your vision. It has to be the best Stars of the Lid album to date.

Organic organ and string layers develop drone bases which help to create a richer sound than any purely "electronic ambient" album could ever hope for. It really sounds like the best aspects of every good ambient album I've ever heard, with a true classical sensibility... I hear echoes of Harold Budd and Brian Eno's "The Pearl", Eno's "Discreet Music", Tim Hecker's "Harmony In Ultraviolet", Earth's "Hex" album, Satie, and more.... which adds up to an incredible total sound.

Whereas I feel that Tim Hecker's "Mirages" album has a distinctly nocturnal sound that is paradoxically "not sleepy", "Refinement of the Decline" is comprised of diurnal sounds that are at the same time very "sleepy." If that makes sense....

It is definitely familiar Stars of the Lid territory, but within that territory the listener suddenly encounters new places-- melody plays a much greater role, and there is a slightly unfamiliar edge ocassionally... Grainier and sharper sounds exist and sometimes emerge from within the soft, smooth, pink ambient cloudscapes.

All the aforementioned elements come together to float loosely in a delta wave-filled aquarium from which Adam Wiltzie and Brian McBride carefully pluck, assemble, and restructure to create this masterpiece of an album.... A masterpiece for SOTL standards, but also for modern music in general.

5th DWARS Festival for VPRO : Pt. 2

Sunday afternoon my wife and I headed out to Amsterdam on the train and metro. Near the Hortus botanical gardens we found the Desmet studios and went inside to experience the 5th Dwars festival for the Dutch radio station VPRO. It was a gloriously sunny day outside, not too hot, the perfect weather for being out of doors... People were strewn about on the grassy banks of the canals sunbathing. During the course of the show several jokes were made regarding all of us festival-goers being inside a little black box of a room with such weather outside....

Nalle kicked the show off after an introduction by Berry Kamer. Hanna Tuulikki, Chris Hladowski (also of the One Ensemble), and Aby Vulliamy (also of the One Ensemble) performed semi-improvised free folk tunes with plenty of drone-based melody. I was quite impressed by their lovely combination of traditional folk sounds with the current "free folk" or even "freak folk" trends... Hanna's voice comes off as a combination of Bjork and Joanna Newsom. Chris played bouzouki in the traditional manner as well as bowing it, striking it, and "feedbacking" it, also playing clarinet and singing. Aby added pleasant vocals besides playing the violin.

After a short break James Blackshaw took the stage. He started out slowly, but soon had everyone mesmerized as he drew us in with his beautifully emotional melodies and hypnotic fingerpicking patterns. He played mostly older tunes, but there were also one or two from "O True Believers" (his latest album). He really gets a special sound out of a 12 string guitar, his fingernails and the repetitive pattern give off some great overtones which fill the sonic space up and create a near-mystical atmosphere around his "romantic" melodies. I use the word "romantic" in the classical sense... some of his tunes and chord progressions were rather reminiscent of late 19th century classical music. Of course it was a live solo performance, so all the marvelous percussion and psychedelic and drone additions that you hear on his albums were absent, but it was still excellent to hear just his pure guitar tones. For this performance all the "raga" descriptions were inadequate; he didn't really play an ragas at all. He also announced that he's got a new album coming out May 1st on the Tompkins Square label, and later on this summer his first three albums (now out of print) will be reissued.

After James Blackshaw there was again a short break, and the One Ensemble followed. Chris and Aby from Nalle joined Daniel Padden and Peter Nicholson to make a quartet of bouzouki/clarinet/vocals/electronics, violin/vocals, guitar/lead vocals/kazoo/clarinet, and cello/vocals, respectively. The One Ensemble is a very intense experience with multiple influences.... Berry Kamer said that he counted at least 18 different styles combined in their sound, but I only counted about 8... There was definitely a folk sound (americana, klezmer, balkan, etc...) and a noise and improv sensibility reminiscent of the Constellation records improvisers, yet completely distinct. Daniel Padden's vocals are brash and loud, and his guitar-playing is rather simple, but his melodies are beautiful and cacophonous at once. Something like the Black Ox Orkestar, Barbez, Helena Espvall-Santoleri, and the Danielson Famile all rolled up together... Eastern European melodies, klezmer music, carnival tunes, punk rock energy, and improvisational noise as well as beauty... the One Ensemble made for a fascinating experience.

And during the break after the One Ensemble my wife and I left because we were missing my mother-in-law's birthday party and we'd started to feel a little bad about it.... so we didn't get to see Thee, Stranded Horse. But it was nice to get back out into the great weather, and away from several chain-smokers sitting around us......

5th DWARS Festival for VPRO : James Blackshaw

5th Dwars Festival for VPRO
April 15th marks the Dwars Festival for national Dutch radio station VPRO. It will be held at the Desmet Studio in Amsterdam, and entry is free... but you have to reserve a spot via email: dwarsfestival at vpro.nl . Starts at 13:30. I've got two spots reserved, my wife is coming with me, so I'll be sure to write a review afterwards. I'm very excited about this one.

The spectacular "contemporary/experimental folk" line-up consists of Thee, Stranded Horse (parisian Yann Tambour-- also in Encre), The One Ensemble (featuring Daniel Padden of Volcano the Bear), Nalle (Scotland-based trio featuring singer Hanna Tuulikki), and James Blackshaw.

Here's the official page:
Dwars Festival (VPRO)

James Blackshaw
James Blackshaw is a UK acoustic guitarist focusing on 12-string, but he plays many other instruments as well. His style is often described as "American primitive guitar" because he has been influenced by the likes of John Fahey and Robbie Basho. His fingerpicking is sublime. He incorporates elements of Indian raga music, improvisation, drone, and psychedelia to create extended pieces of immense depth and pristine melody. He's like a more virtuosic Six Organs of Admittance or a more densely orchestrated Jack Rose.

A note-worthy selection from his not-yet-unmanageable discography (though sadly some of it is out of print):


O True Believers : CD on Important Records







O True Believers : LP on Bo'Weavil Recordings (limited edition)

O True Believers is a melding of Eastern and Western modes and scales, improvisation and written tunes, simplicity and virtuosity, 12 string guitar and tamboura, cymbala, and harmonium...







Sunshrine : CD on Digitalis Industries (limited to 1000, Sold Out)
Two tracks: Sunshrine, a sprawling improvised finger-picked masterpiece (evoking the most golden sunlight ever to pierce the primeval forest's canopy) that begins and ends with shimmering, dancing, tinkling percussion; and Skylark Herald's Dawn, a shorter tune featuring a beautiful and simple melody that will haunt you forever...





Sunshrine / Celeste : LP on Bo'Weavil Recordings (limited to 525, Sold Out)

The LP version features Sunshrine and Skylark Herald's Dawn on one side, and the two-part Celeste on the other.