This is an album of spontaneous improvised recordings made over five days in a US studio in a during a heat wave in August, 2017. Another place. Another time. Pre-pandemic yet somehow tapping into the ‘lost’ worlds where familiar ways of life have been disrupted perhaps never to return.
The six tracks are intended as wordless stories and conversations. Philadelphia based guitarist and composer Tim Motzer adds textures as backing to Fides Krucker’s haunting wails and moans using prepared guitar, e-bow and creative electronics. The experimental compositions have more in common with contemporary classical music than rock.
Motzer comes to this record with an impressive CV, having worked with some artists such as David Sylvian and Ursula Rucker as well Burnt Friedman and Jaki Leibeziet from Can. Krucker has founded theatrical companies in Canada and collaborated in lyrical pieces. She has also written a book entitled ‘Good Girls Don’t Sing: Women and Voice’.
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The Toronto singer’s voice could be interpreted as that of a woman pleading or grieving. As you might glean from the fact that one fifteen minute track is entitled Ruins, her singing is not light or celebratory. The longest track, Density (18:31 minutes), one of two tracks featuring New York drummer Jeremy Caristedt, was made after a conversation about Donald Trump; cause for much lamenting if ever there was one!
This is not easy listening by a long chalk, but it’s an affecting and at times moving album that maintains a consistent anguished atmosphere one associates with any loss.
1K Recordings’ website
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