Christopher Tignor: musical direction, violin, software
Maxim Moston: violin
Stephen Griesgraber: guitar
Rob Collins: fender rhodes, piano
David Nadal: guitar
Marlan Barry: 'cello
Leanne Darling: viola
Aaron Jackson: piano
Brett O'mara Campbell: violin
- Their amplified violins, viola, 'cello, electric guitars, fender rhodes, piano, and software instruments now combine for a new language of experimental instrumental storytelling, remaining physically immersive and emotionally charged. Each work presents its own evocative landscape, guiding listeners through inescapably personal and spellbinding electrified sonic adventures. The intimacy of strings and piano combine with rock and roll's electric guitars and fender rhodes within a storm of interactive computer textures to defy cultural pigeonholing. This is a new sound free of "cross-over" conceitsimply the sound of a new native musical space, a new generation of distinctly American music. - New Albion-
Christopher Tignor: musical direction, software
Jeffrey Guimond: fender rhodes
Maxim Moston: violin
Stephen Griesgraber: guitar
Peter Cressy: guitar
Marlan Barry: 'cello
Leanne Darling: viola
An orchestral band with an interesting twist, Slow Six have compiled this debut album from tracks they've recorded over the last four years, though none of it sounds in the least dated. The twist is the use of an active computer that takes in the sounds the members make and interprets them into what it will, used mainly in a live setting but put to slight use on these recordings, as well. Though they work with other artists when they perform as sort of a rule, there is no missing component when listening to these songs, as they're certainly dynamic enough to hold attention. Sometimes they take a while to warm up, or to get to that next shift, but there's never a moment of absolute staggering boredom that attacked me. What also struck me is the care in the packaging, like it was an art project all its own, as the cover photo has so much meaning, like the Empire State Building is a great unknown forbidden to those who live behind the fence. The liner notes are actually a photograph of the walls in their rehearsal space, where guitarist Peter Cressy actually wrote the words on the wall in a very elegant style. It's a small gesture, but it shows the commitment and care of these artists to and for their work. The songs number three, with the shortest clocking it at almost nineteen minutes, and they represent a full range of emotions as well as variations in what the band is capable of. Each has its own breath and life, and moves with a spirit that feels like a wise and aged soul. To break these massive passages down to "the violin sounds great" is almost an insult to their beauty, but the instruments are played with great skill and passion, and the music becomes more lovely with every replay. Violin, viola, and cello are joined with guitars and Rhodes piano and the aforementioned computer instruments no percussion. It's not missed or even needed, and the sounds all swirl together in an artful embrace. - Brainwashed.
Christopher Tignor: musical direction, violin, software
Stephen Griesgraber: guitar
Theo Metz: drums
Rob Collins: fender rhodes
Ben Lively: violin
At the turn of the millennium in downtown New York, in an era of Moby and the Strokes, Slow Six was pulling up in front of clubs, loading in music stands, video projectors, a battery of string players, and a desktop computer (!) programmed with custom software. Reading down their twenty-minute electro-acoustic scores to stunned audiences, Slow Six helped redefine what was possible when those who grew up with both classical and rock music re-imagined their surrounding musical landscape in their own image.
Today, so-called "cross-over" music is near ubiquitous, from The Wordless Music Series to bands like The Books and composers like Nico Muhly. Yet it is now, following their 2007 sophomore release for the prestigious classical label New Albion, that Slow Six returns to their experimental rock roots with Tomorrow Becomes You, an emotionally unrestrained full-length infused with taught rhythms, unraveling melodies, and detailed ambiences that owe as much to Tortoise and The Dirty Three as Steve Reich and Brian Eno.
In keeping with the Slow Six mantra, this is still music that changes - and changes us - slowly over time - the virtuosic, minimalist hocketing in "The Night You Left New York" slowly giving way to its eruptive guitar-soaked finale. But a new, welcomed optimism runs through "Tomorrow Becomes You" - never has the band's light shown so brightly as in the record's finale, "These Rivers Between Us".
Tignor's signature software creations (free from the band's site), which he uses to transform live sound, also make key appearances, creating unique electronic landscapes from talk radio on "Because Together We Resonate" and the players' own performances on "Sympathetic Response System (part 2)". - Western Vinyl.
Working through the sonic possibilities of the hollow body. Good, free Clinical Archive release--should satisfy anyone longing for Larks' Tongues in Aspic.
Comments
(The Trout Quintet)
Trying to stay awake on my first day back to work. Lagos Funk helps.
Craig
Jimmy brings the funk.
amclark, where do we find that one!
Slow Six - Nor'easter - ( New Albion Records 2007)
Christopher Tignor: musical direction, violin, software
Maxim Moston: violin
Stephen Griesgraber: guitar
Rob Collins: fender rhodes, piano
David Nadal: guitar
Marlan Barry: 'cello
Leanne Darling: viola
Aaron Jackson: piano
Brett O'mara Campbell: violin
Slow Six - Private Times in Public Places - ( Western Vinyl 2004)
Christopher Tignor: musical direction, software
Jeffrey Guimond: fender rhodes
Maxim Moston: violin
Stephen Griesgraber: guitar
Peter Cressy: guitar
Marlan Barry: 'cello
Leanne Darling: viola
Slow Six - Tomorrow Becomes You - (Western Vinyl 2010)
Christopher Tignor: musical direction, violin, software
Stephen Griesgraber: guitar
Theo Metz: drums
Rob Collins: fender rhodes
Ben Lively: violin
Very nice. A free download (bandcamp). Creative Commons license.
Recommended.
THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS Live @ WFMU November 2, 2010
Three of my favorite things: jangly, poppy, and free.
For forty-seven minutes I feel a little more mysterious and that my life is just a tad more interesting.
Liking the new Eno - anyone hear if eMu was getting this? Warp is so inconsistent over there.
Somebody recc'd I Heart Lung on the other board way back...thanks whoever you are.
This album is still available free, as is their Xmas album, I Heart Christmas:
Craig
Working through the sonic possibilities of the hollow body. Good, free Clinical Archive release--should satisfy anyone longing for Larks' Tongues in Aspic.