The three piece Angel’s first release was their second album, although they were a two-piece when they recorded their first, which is released second; for their two-track third album they have become ten by joining forces with seven of the dozens who make up the Strings of Consciousness ensemble. So If Angel were to travel through a three kilometer long tunnel at sixteen miles per hour, how many apples would I have left?
Angel are Pan Sonic’s Ilpo Vaisanen, Schneider TM’s Dirk Dresselhaus, and cellist Hildur Gudnadottir (who has recorded with mapsadaisical favourite BJ Nilsen amongst others). I must confess I only came upon their Kalmukia CD some time after its release, but became entranced by its dusty drones and dirges; with that in mind, I was much quicker off the mark for the belated release of their earlier Hedonism recordings. However these are entirely different. Before Gudnadottir got involved, their compositions were much starker, sparser and shorter. From the opening “Holding Loose“, Pan Sonic’s abrasiveness is evident, with teeth-piercing metallic scrapes and crackling electronics, albeit minus the juddering rhythms which are their forte (indeed, all of Angel’s records are pretty much beat-free). The album quickly loses its volume and edge after this, dealing solely in a quiet and prickly abstraction which I found difficult to engage with. To be fair, I got the impression it didn’t much like me either.
For Angel’s latest recording, they hooked up with Strings Of Consciousness. It is nothing at all like Hedonism; draw a line from that at a forty-five degree angle straight through Kalmukia and keep on going to hit S/T. There are only two tracks for a start, each of around twenty minutes. To Angel’s electronics (and cello now, of course), Phillipe Petit’s Strings of Consciousness ensemble have added guitars, double bass, harp, and a whole lot of weight. The first track builds like a Birchville Cat Motel album in layers from quiet beginnings of high ringing feedback and low rumbling bass and cello. Scarred guitars are added, rising up to a moaning intensity that shakes objects from the shelves. The second piece is more subtle, with sighing guitar and accordion being repelled into the air by a dense, magnetic hum. A most powerful and enjoyable record indeed.
I’m hoping to see a couple of the participants live soon: Philippe Petit is at Cafe Oto on 25th March, and then the following week I’m hoping to catch Pan Sonic in Amsterdam. In the mean time I’m playing S/T until the walls crumble around me.
Visit eMego and Important to assemble all the pieces of the Angel puzzle.
1 comment
March 28, 2009 at 12:03 am
Hildur Gudnadóttir, Without Sinking (Touch) « mapsadaisical
[...] perfect timing. I had only just finished waffling about the importance of cellist Hildur Gudnadóttir’s contribution to the band Angel, noting [...]