Language of Light side

artist: Language of Light / Crow Tongue release: The Tower / Wind Chant format: 7″ year of release: 2008 label: AntiClock duration: 10:33

detailed info: discogs.com.

This here 7″ is a nice little offering from AntiClock records, and it’s a split between Language of Light, [...]]]>

Crow Tongue side

Language of Light side

artist: Language of Light / Crow Tongue
release: The Tower / Wind Chant
format: 7″
year of release: 2008
label: AntiClock
duration: 10:33

detailed info: discogs.com.

This here 7″ is a nice little offering from AntiClock records, and it’s a split between Language of Light, which is a duo consisting of R. Loftiss (The Gray Field Recordings) and Frank Suchomel (Inalonelyplace) and Crow Tongue, which has become Timothy Renner (Stone Breath) his new main project, where he is joined by Æ Hoskin on drums. It’s pressed into a nice disc of marbled grey vinyl, which along with the grey artwork makes for a very fine layout.

Language of Light occupies the A-side, with a track that is very different from their first EP, Inside The Head Of A Butterfly Dreaming Of Being A Giant Moth Destroying Tokyo, which was basically a long, spacy drone. “The Tower” is much more a mixture of the styles of either member of the duo, combining experimental folk, drones, spoken word, and samples. The song sounds quite sweet, but also gains in intensity, climaxing in a very nice folk drone with Justin Jones on guest violin. A funny side detail is this: the track incorporates samples of aged vinyl crackle, but the 7″ itself is also not of the highest quality – my copy being slightly off-centre – which adds natural surges of crackle to the sound as well. The result of the two overlaid ‘defects’ is suprisingly nice, however.

The crackling sound is also present on the B-side of course, where it is equally unobtrusive, to be honest. It fits quite nicely into the lo-fi folk ritual that is “Wind Chant”. The track is a hypnotic, repetitive one based mainly on vocals, djembe, percussion and a homemade bass gumbri-banjo. It’s quite typical of Renner’s style, but works very well on this release.

The end result is a good split single by two interesting artists from the American experimental scene. If you enjoy any of the related projects, or fancy a peek at what’s happening in the US folk/drone avantgarde, do pick up this slab of grey matter.

Reviewed by O.S.

Tracklist:

A. Language of Light – The Tower (6:03)

B. Crow Tongue – Wind Chant (4:30)