Michigan based husband and wife duo Windy and Carl’s twelfth album ‘ We will always be’ and fourth on the Kranky imprint is a fairly quiet affair that begins with a folkish introduction song and continues into darkening drone. They have been described as space rock, or even compared to 4AD style ethereal pop which gives you a vague inkling of stylistic descriptions of their sound but more readily considered through their core instruments, guitarist Carl Hultgren and bassist/singer Windy Weber create minimal abstract atmospheres with the help of ebow and effects. ‘For Rosa’ opens the piece with quiet patina of fuzz overlaid by simple chord based acoustic guitar with Windy intoning a love dedication track. Then it is straight into bright drones and vocal choral effect additions, ponderous bass doing less than a stroll through the guitar shimmer haze of ‘Remember‘. ‘Spires’ is a more august piece, less flourish on the guitar and drones spun out in gleams against shifting spatial tones. ‘We will always be’ has a classic minimal structure concentrating on a repeating theme with variations and moving the effects from this base, it is high and bright ringing tones with a bass hum underlying it. ‘Looking Glass’ has more of the darkened gleam of it’s title, an introspection of psychedelic tones, slightly jagged guitar notes under a thick constant drone with a few moments of distinct melodic development mostly clouded. ‘The nature of Memory’ is more forgiving to the sense with a lighter drone and the return of the slow bass with slightly more variation and Hultgren’s guitar goes on a noise scape for a while, vocals are low in the mix in a conversational mode. ‘The smell of old books’ brings back the hum versus melodic shimmering guitar that moves from the sharp distinction into a wider atmosphere. ‘Fainting in the presence of the lord’ for all it’s dramatic title is a restrained homily of the ambient mode that constructs a wide sonic palette for it’s atmospheric and drones that lend towards descriptions as hymn albeit with the odd bit of noise.
Innerversitysound
