Camille Emaille/Tom Weeks-Ghoast; Wolfsblood Records, 2017

 

A cassette release from 2017, Ghoast, by Camille Emaille and Tom Weeks, is a mysterious one that Disaster Amnesiac has wanted to enthuse about ever since seeing this duo play live at the Luggage Store in San Francisco. It comes shrouded in mystery, with the hermetical imagery and vegan sentiments on its cover. Alto saxophone player Weeks is a very serious guy that has extended techniques out the wazoo and, at the time of the release anyway, True Kvlt aesthetics that he was willing to display. Can't say that I ever saw him in corpse paint, but most definitely discussed many issues about Metal with him when we'd chat on the set. It must be daunting at times, having to rise up to the challenge of playing an instrument with such a rich history (think about all of the alto sax Masters from Charlie Parker up to John Zorn), but that said Weeks has been a fearless explorer of the instrument, and he certainly knows how to fuse all of the varied strains into a singular voice when he plays it. Percussionist Emaille, a space drummer with the skills to coax big tones out her distinctive drum kit's varied drums and resonant metals, knows the value of silence along with having the discernment as to when to open the sound up and get those big, noisy passages happening. Over the two sides of Ghoast, Emaille and Weeks spend time within zones of spacial testing, at times featuring scratchy, scraping percussion and alto sax squeaks and gurgles. At other times, the duo go with a more full throttle approach of a more Free Jazz nature. It's the latter of these two types of interactions that really delight this listener; their heat blazes in manners which thrill and delight. The episodic quality of the ways in which the recording's fourteen tracks flow provides lots of intrigue and drama regardless, whether Camille and Tom are blasting or ruminating together. If you discover Ghoast out in the wild, you'll surely feel like some kind of wizard, as Camille Emaille and Tom Weeks must have during the sessions that produced it.