microphones in the trees: tom carter & vanessa arn

Sunday, August 12, 2007

tom carter & vanessa arn


"Soundscapers Tom Carter and Vanessa Arn collaborate here on two tracks, the first a rather straight on ambient, the latter a moody, soupy mix of 50's sci-fi soundtrack drone and atmospherics taking their cue from interludes on the Paranoid album. Set side by side on What Is Here For it is the second tune that is the more effective and powerful.

This is essentially, though, a conversation between Carter's lap steel guitar and Arn's electro-acoustic drones. Recorded live, these two tracks of course utilize the sounds of the space itself as another instrument. The environment speaks through its silence as well as its absorption of the duo's sounds. If you listen closely, you can even here sounds from outside the studio drifting into the mix.

While the first track simmers and throbs at its own pace, clearly there is more meat to the second piece, and was probably the more fun out the two to play. Adding warped, droning colors taken from genre archetypes to Carter and Arn's already confident and emotional collaboration, makes for a dense, surprising listen. It is perhaps also a cool taste of where further explorations could take them." foxy digitalis

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