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| 4/22/2009 10:29:00 AM Email this article • Print this article |
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Fellow Kranky artist Benoit Pioulard to open, both solo and with his duo Lambs Laughter, a collaboration with Windy. Local noise musicians Chris Knight to open. The show begins at 8pm on Friday, April 24. (Photos provided) |
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Out of This World
Nick Carr
This Friday, April 24, Kranky Records husband and wife duo will headline a concert at the Community School of Music and Arts. This Dearborn-Michigan-based duo plays music characterized by ambient drones, creative soundscapes and emotionally evocative dynamics. However, unlike most of the other artists in their tradition, Windy & Carl's musical experimentation is achieved with mostly traditional instruments (Windy plays bass, and Carl plays guitar), rather than synthesizers. While others in this rapidly growing genre rely on laptops and sound manipulation software, Windy & Carl's 1993 genesis required a more traditional approach. While it may limit the sheer number of available sounds, it does force a more intimate knowledge of the capabilities of their instruments.
This intimate knowledge translates into both recorded and live performances, which in noise music can be totally different experiences. Unlike several contemporary acts that are purely improvisational, however, Windy & Carl's live performances do follow a certain form and structure.
"The performances are recreations of recordings," says Windy. "Our pieces start by simply picking up our instruments and listening to what they release on that day at that time. Often times the songs are instantaneous - they simply appear and if we are lucky we record them the first time. Then we go back and learn how to make them happen again, and work with them to be able to perform them for others."
For Windy & Carl, their songs - though born of spontaneity - are thoughtfully crafted and anything but careless. "We experiment with our instruments, trying new things, finding new ways to play them, and then work with sounds found in that realm," explains Windy. "It is a similar medium to sculpting - arranging the sounds into a body we appreciate and then finding a way to sustain that creation, either for reproduction in the future in a live setting, or for recording purposes. We are definitely influenced by sounds we hear - trains, birds, machinery, hums - and those sounds will often times spur a search for similarly affecting tones from our instruments."
Carl adds in. "We do seek out emotions in sound, and ways to express the feelings we experience in life. We are lucky to be able to convey these emotions well - as evidenced by how many people have written through the years and told us of the connection they have felt to our songs, of how our music helped them express their own thoughts and feelings. It's incredible to create music that resonates with others in this way."
Joining Windy & Carl will be fellow Kranky Records artist Tom Meluch, who records under the name Benoit Pioulard. Meluch's music is structured a bit more traditionally than Windy & Carl, with a basis in folk guitar, but is perhaps even more noticeably experimental for that juxtaposition. That juxtaposition relies on both the lo-fi Americana foundation poised against the more drone-based experimental elements.
However, as Melunch explains, this juxtaposition is more organic than intentional, "Sound is a lot of fun, and really the similarity or dissimilarity of genres is completely subjective; 'pop' can mean Hannah Montana - which I find offensive in the same way that a soccer mom would probably find Cannibal Corpse offensive - but it can also refer to something like Super Furry Animals, who I find to be amazingly creative and talented. And they also combine an incredible number of disparate influences amid their cohesive whole. So these tags are mutable and ultimately meaningless, like describing the taste of chocolate... you can't.
"Everything I do comes from a similar source of utter fascination with sound waves and how they interact; I listen to a fair number of very different types of music but all of it appeals to the same part of me, and what I do is ultimately an attempt at a response.. my voice may be small but I do like what I've done," he finishes.
Not only does Melunch like what he's done, but a growing fan base does as well, a fact that has forced Meluch, who has heretofore been primarily a recording artist, to take his act on the road. In true postmodern experimental form, Meluch describes this dilemma, "The past few months preparing to tour have been the first attempt at such a setup for me. The music I've always worked on has been steeped in process rather than spontaneous generation; like I began with a four-track tape player and had to map out everything I wanted to do on each track for a given piece, and the songs on the more recent releases were assembled over the course of days or weeks, so proper performance is rather unfamiliar to me, but I get an immense joy from the anticipation and alienness of it." It is, however, this tension - the alien anticipation - that creates such dynamic composition.
Rounding out the bill is local artist Chris Knight, who after quite some time playing for small crowds of friends, and a successful set that incorporated live visuals at a recent Zs concert as hosted by Ithaca Underground, has finally started getting noticed for his experimental live electronics. With a set that is loose enough to not be rigid, but so capably executed that "loose" could never be "sloppy," Chris Knight won't disappoint.
Windy & Carl will perform at the 3rd Floor Concert Hall at CSMA, located on 330 E. State St. The show will begin at 8pm this Friday, April 24. Benoit Pioulard, Lambs Laughter, and Chris Knight will open. The show is $7 and all ages.
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The Youth Leadership Corps is a new Youth Council program to connect teens (14+) with their community through volunteer service while also doing workshops for leadership building and event/outreach planning. After two compelling opening productions, Glimmerglass Opera began its second weekend with an all-time favorite, Mozart's comic masterpiece "The Marriage of Figaro." Don't let the title fool you; with the libretto by genius collaborator Lorenzo da Ponte, this opera is presented in Italian with English projected titles. The show was a truly remarkable achievement-a seamless, clearly delineated, musically excellent, and emotionally telling performance-matched only by some unscheduled thunder and lightning theatrics outside.  |
