Artist : Barn Owl
Album : Lost In The Glare
Year : 2011
Genre : Ambient
Quality : 232kbps / 44.1KHz / Joint Stereo
Source : CD
Playtime : 0h 41m
Size : 72.87mb
Label : Thrill Jockey
Catalognr : THRILL 280
Tracklist:
01. Pale Star 4:24
02. Turiya 4:05
03. Devotion I 5:56
04. The Darkness Night Since 1683 7:34
05. Temple Of The Winds 3:24
06. Midnight Tide 5:16
07. Light Echoes 6:08
08. Devotion II 4:58
Releasenotes:
Of all the candid cosmological images evoked in Barn OwlÆs album and song titles
(Ancestral Star, In the Red Horizon, Bridge to the Clouds, Burning Dunes in
Moonlight, etcà), one might suspect, prior to initially hearing the band, that
their sensibilities would align with acts like PortlandÆs Pulse Emitter and
ChicagoÆs Caboladies, or any of the other projects indebted to their Krautrock
and Kosmishe predecessors.
One quickly realizes that Barn Owl is a different beast all together, who over
the short span of a couple years have managed to make as much of an impact as
some of the heavier hitters in the flourishing synth scene. The band deserves
credit for not trading in their guitars and pedals for electronics with
auto-pilot settings, and for creating music that ù although not without its own
obvious crumb trail of influences (for starters, Pandit Pran Nath and Tony
Conrad) ù explores an alternate definition of contemporary minimalism.
Lost in the Glare, Barn OwlÆs seventh album proper and second since theyÆve
signed with Thrill Jockey, is the culmination of a sound that the core members
of the band, Jon Porras and Evan Caminiti, have stuck to since the beginning.
Delicately thrummed and confidently plucked guitars, raga-infused tonalities and
vocal drones make up the core of this sound. From album to album the band have
built on its foundation, incorporating percussion, harmonium, bells and gongs
and some synthesizer as a back drop, creating an ever shifting blend of
Appalachian-flecked drone music.
That doesnÆt begin to describe the diversity of Lost in the Glare, which starts
off on a familiar note but then gives way to ôTuriya,ö the excellent second cut
that sounds like Japanese rockers Boris at half speed, thanks to some slow and
heavy drumming by Jacob Felix Heule. ôDevotion Iö finds the bandÆs familiar
string plucking coupled with cymbal washes and a raspy tanpura drone acting as
the pieceÆs main artery, feeding it life. The band maxes out their amps on ôThe
Darkest Night Since 1683,ö a track whose distortion soaked guitar riffs would
mesh well with nearly any Southern Lord release, while ôDevotion II,ö the
albumÆs closer, lays on more of the doom-laden beat before unfurling into a
barrage of free drumming and low-end guitar crumble.
Unlike so many bandsÆ failed attempts in trying to be five acts at once, Barn
Owl pull it off here unintentionally. Lost in the Glare leaves the impression of
an album whose sum is half amassed from the experience gained in making a
half-dozen albums, while the other half borrows from doom metal, Japanese
psychedelia and Hindustani classical music to complete the picture. Ultimately,
this album manages to sound like all and none of these, making Barn Owl a band
thatÆs becoming harder to pin down and easier to appreciate.
Adrian Dziewanski, http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6642
http://www.thrilljockey.com/thrill/Barn-Owl/Lost-in-the-Glare