Sunday, February 19, 2012

The Owls Are Not What They Seem

I was not aware that this record existed until Jon Porras mentioned it to me last autumn during the Lost In The Glare tour stop in Allston, MA.  Garden Sound was a one-off collaboration project by Barn Owl (Evan Caminiti & Jon Porras) with Dewey Mahood and Jed Bindeman of Eternal Tapestry.  When hunting down the quite limited pressing of Black Summit, I surprisingly stumbled upon a like-new copy which I purchased for fifteen American dollars.  A great find.

Knowing both the sound of Barn Owl and Eternal Tapestry, Black Summit sounds pretty much like one would anticipate...and this is not a bad thing in the slightest.  Dewey and Jed are here providing ET's garage psych rock foundation - even steady beats and percussive accents to repeating guitar motifs and variations on thereof.  Barn Owl fill in the gaps with drone and feedback, topping off the mix with light touches of entrancing chiming nuances left to ring out.

The record exudes a mystic atmosphere - not overbearingly dark, but heavily foreboding.  As the observer it is often easy to feel as though you are on the edge, waiting for the break, fall, or spill to take take you to a plateau of resolution.  This may be because, though relaxed, there is often more going on than at first glance.  The three guitars overlap, complementing and augmenting each other in a way that embraces the leading edge of presence...something often experienced in good improvisation; Black Summit has a bit of that live vibe.  You can feel each piece working to carry things through from one section to the next quite naturally...but also that it could have happened in any number of ways.  The percussion seems to effortlessly reel things in and keep it grounded - from getting too drawn or too stagnant.  The second track (found below) is the heaviest and most immediately intense of the four, in which each element is more narrowly focused on creating a particular and singular whole sound movement.
I'm very happy with my purchase.  Black Summit has made a lovely and unique addition to my collection.

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