23.05. CHARALAMBIDES in Bremen

[twistedknister]

spook.
space.
mystery.
psychedelic song.


CHARALAMBIDES (austin)


mittwoch, 23. mai, 20.30 h
knieschussclub im ZAKK
sielpfad 11 - bremen



www.kranky.net/artists/charalambides.html
www.wholly-other.com
zakk.klubraum.org



CHARALAMBIDES
To say that the words "unique" and "singular" are over-used in
describing music is to state the obvious. To apply these words to the
sounds created by the various duo/trio configurations of the Texas
group Charalambides over the last decade plus would be
understatement. To be sure there are numerous antecedents to their
music; to deny this of any artist's work would be akin to saying that
they are deaf. But they have surely broken new ground in the
primitive/folk/mystic/improv/psych valley in which they toil. As
Marcus Boon wrote in The Wire; "...here is a truly 21st century
experimental ethnic music that explores quietness and stasis... in
the same way that musicians in the second half of the 20th century
discovered amplification, noise and speed." Originally a duo
comprised of Tom Carter (who had been playing guitar in the Houston
grunt-psych band The Mike Gunn) and Christina Carter, Charalambides
released a cassette called Our Bed Is Green on their own Wholly Other
label in 1992 (later reissued on CD and double LP). The two Carters
showed a firm grasp on the haunting nature of American blues and
country, as well as a mastery of tape manipulation, a disregard for
genre boundaries, and a marked tendency towards vertically stacked
guitar drone. A full length album called Union was released by the
Siltbreeze label, and many other releases followed, both as a duo and
trio (first with Jason Bill, and later with pedal steel player
Heather Leigh Murray). Although better known as a trio through their
various tours with both Heather and Jason, Tom and Christina have
returned to concentrating on their duo work in more recent years,
fusing introspective, open-ended, and often spacious song structures
with blasts of feedback and explosive sound often startling to fans
familiar only with the band's deceptively low-key reputation. In
2005, Tom and Christina met in California to record the tracks for
their new kranky CD, A Vintage Burden. Besides commemorating the
return to the duo format, the album represents a culmination of the
threads of repetition and psychedelic song that run through much of
the duo's work Although partially an homage to the clarity and
ambience of 60s and 70s production and songwriting, the album retains
the spook, space and mystery of even their most extreme releases:
"Tom and Christina Carter here again showcase their seemingly innate
ability to lock into a shared orbit across the darkening sky, their
luminous drift scaled down to its essential, irreducible
core." (quote from Pitchfork). Tom and Christina are planning several
tours of varying durations through the rest of 2006 and the beginning
of 2007 (and beyond). Despite being a duo, their live sound achieves
an energy and ferocity not often glimpsed on their releases, while
maintaining the hissing delicacy of their most haunting studio work.

[Ulbricht]

Schade, da kann ich nicht.
Wer auf Gitarrenkram aus einer hippiesken/psychedelischen Ecke steht sollte sich das geben.