All shots from Desert Drone at Screening Room, Tucson 10/15/2024.
Below: lid ismuth. Floating worlds within Drone. Somewhat short set.
Above: Ceremonial Abyss. Bobbing up and down in a diamond sea. With flicker. Longer, booming set.
Below: Grant Beyschau. Hurdy gurdy, percussion, Casio tones. Went deeply into the drone. Look out for this recording, you'll want to hear it.
Desert Drone is unstoppable!
All shots taken at Miami Art Works, Miami AZ 10/13/2024.
Below: Loud Obnoxious Bass. Miami Noise from Lob Instagon!
Above: Aphrodites Polyp. Tucson Electro-Acoustic. Lap Steel guitar used to great effect.
Below: Dummy Rifle from Phoenix. Densities and aggro.
The first piece, firn, was recorded by the trio in in 2018 and features a quiet, slow moving activity among the three of them. The ways in which the group mesh their sounds shows an ensemble that is focused upon listening to each other and responding within appropriate duration, after silence or as a prelude to additional silence. Of note here at mi casita has been the element of surprise from the timbre of viola, cornet and flute. The fascinating question of "which one did that", always an aspect from the satisfying Improvised Music listening session, is one which has arisen often as Disaster Amnesiac has listened. Staring out my window now, big, puffy white clouds float past in the Sonoran sky, and dustsceawing's music matches them with a sort of perfection. This is enjoyably float-ey music, made more enjoyable by the calmness of its presentation. The group plays with fine interconnectivity.
On side two resides fold, a piece which had Karraker, Ophoven, and Stahlmann performing and recording simultaneously at their respective residences, via Zoom. A very interesting dynamic of this 2022 session is that they each were muted from one and other, essentially playing solos at the same time (does that statement even make sense?) The press sheet describes the result as "[S]trata stack and form something solid" a descriptor which Disaster Amnesiac can hear and most definitely agrees with. The various layers of sound combine with a "stacked" nature that, if listened to closely, do evince touches of the adjacent lines to be seen within stratum. As an experiment, fold's principal dynamic is fascinating. Is it braveness or folly to tell their public about the method? I can't say, but it must be assumed that this method is one in play more often within improvised settings.
Special note must be made too of dustsceawing as a physical object. The cover art is sublime and mysterious, and the actual cassette is clear with green glitter printing. Noice.
The players who produced this release went deep, and you can too.
All photos taken at Screening Room Tucson 10/4/2024.
Below: Dollblood. Blended songwriting and Drone. Really excellent crescendo to end a short set.
Above: MMRA. Floating cities of the electron.
Below: Cecyl Ruehlen pulled wonderful feedback and overtones from six floor-based fret boards. Heaviest act of the evening with film that Clement Greenberg would have found nicely saturated.
Above: Lauren Sarah Hayes does Noise Aikido. Rather too short of set, Disaster Amnesiac wanted more! Gestural twitches from interactive cybernetic looping action.
Below: Twig Harper. Out on a long tour. Static-ey mastery. Fascinating wind instrument paired with an influential Noise rig. He just calmly destroyed.
Before the acts played, and in-between sets, Wave Archive and Desert Drone, co-curators of the show, played older Country and Hillbilly music over the PA system. I pondered the terrible destruction in southern Appalachia, especially the images I've seen from North Carolina. Praying for all of those affected by the terrible Hurricane Helene.
