Articles
2008 Ten Favourite Labels
Ten Questions Celer
Ten Questions Deadbeat

Albums
Anzio Green
Ariel Abshire
Osman Arabi
Arastoo & AEMAE
Asymmetrical Head
Benoît Pioulard
Bohren & der Club of Gore
Matt Borghi
Celer
Cubenx
Anders Dahl
Davis & Roux
Deadbeat
Feu Follet
Formication
Generic
Stefan Goldmann
Gultskra Artikler / Lanterns
Hauschka
Hexes & Ohs
Koen Holtkamp
I Am Robot And Proud
Illusion of Safety
Integral
Koen Park
Akira Kosemura
Koushik
Library Tapes
Lineland
Mamiffer
Melodium
Moon
Oppressed By The Line
Pillars and Tongues
Rumpistol
Kamran Sadeghi
Sans Serif
Signal Deluxe
Skogen
Saul Stokes
Matthew Sweet
Tapage
Thursday / Envy
Windy & Carl

Compilations / Mixes
An Taobh Tuathail II
Chaos Restored 2
DFPRMX
Kuniyuki
Message Subatomic World
Pero es olor en el cuarto...

EPs
Canyons!
Budhaditya Chattopadhyay
Cubenx
Dokuro
Fraction
Lee Holman
Ikonika
King Midas Sound
Michael Lambright
Library Tapes
Lilienweiss
MRK1
:papercutz
Spencer Parker
Poratz
Spartak + John Chantler
Andy Vaz

Pillars and Tongues: Protection
Contraphonic

Though Pillars and Tongues' approach is characterized as “spontaneous composition,” the forty-seven minutes of music on Protection sound anything but unstructured. Listening to the serpentine paths the compositions follow, one concludes that the Chicago , Illinois trio—Evan Hydzik, Elizabeth Remis, and Mark Treck—is either supernaturally telepathic or, at the very least, brought to the recording some degree of familiarity to the recording's material. The three longer pieces (each fourteen minutes in length) especially must have been mapped out to some extent while allowing ample room for the group and its guests to maneuver. Pillars and Tongues specializes in a nomadic, soul-searching style whose interplay comfortably extends itself into improvisatory realms infused by the spirits of free jazz, psychedelic folk, and drone ambient. Though the group's formally a trio, in truth Protection showcases to an equal and sometimes greater degree the contributions of guest musicians.

The see-sawing groan of Hydzik's double bass and Remis's violin inaugurates “Hall Of Bliss” which, when joined by percussive pounding, could pass for a folk meditation resurrected from the 18th century. The croak of Douglas Tesnow's bass clarinet jumpstarts “Dead Sings” after which Trecka's harmonica and vocals alternate over a slow, double bass-prodded vamp that grows steadily turbulent until it explodes into a freewheeling psych-folk jam. The storm soon subsides, however, and the musicians settle into a long-form ambient drone episode that allows the bass clarinet's wheeze and the violin's pizzicato tumble to come forth before ultimately expiring. “Protection (I)” begins mournfully with the repetition of an elegiac string theme accompanied by atmospheric bell tinkling, percussive punctuation, bass clarinet and flute interjections, and a monotone, incantatory vocal section. The piece entropically reaches a point of stasis before Tesnow's bass clarinet and Keelin Mayer's flute take the lead and re-animate the others as they make their way home, eventually returning to the string theme with which the piece began. “Protection (II)” opens in a bluesy frame of mind and thereafter segues through multiple episodes—vocal and instrumental—of contrasting character with Mayer's flute again a prominent voice.

November 2008