August Born

Thisalbum is the transatlantic collaboration between Ben Chansy (Comets onFire, Current 93 and solo as Six Organs of Admittance) and HiroyukiUsui (Ghost, Fushitsusha, and solo as L) and it is based on theproposition that artists, even ones separated by the largest ocean inthe world, can endlessly inspire one another.Drag City

It's not a new gambit, but it runs the risk of sounding like the forcedcompression of musical ideas rather than the marriage of them. Thealbum begins with three shorter pieces which sound largely scrappedtogether, most likely because they are indeed created out of littlescraps of guitar, field recordings, and other minor instruments. Thesound of the air-mail postage can almost be heard being applied to thepackage in which the musicians sent the CD-Rs. After listening to theintroductive three songs, I can't help but feel that they pale slightlyto the more ruminative pieces on the album. Part of the power of bothartists is their ability to assault listeners with an interminablemixture of sounds both soothing and searing. The repetition of thesesounds seems to draw the more searing sounds to the side of soothing.Don't ask what the chemical reaction or physical phenomenon is whichallows such an attraction. It just happens. But the prerequisite isexposure and length. The songs on the album which lack the prerequisitefail, expectedly. "More Dead Bird Blues" (the motif of death and birdsis consummately alive on the album; seven songs contain some referenceto death or avian creatures) is the first of such ruminative pieceswhich, at first listen, I would not consider wholly melodic orpleasing. The drony and windswept incantations of the first threeminutes eventually give way to chimes and guitar and before you know itthe song has metamorphosed entirely. After a few listens, the song hasa transformative power, both in its suggestions and its aftermath. Someof the songs are more immediately gripping with their elegance, such as"Last Breath of the Bird" and "Providence." The former has a beautifulguitar line underwritten by gentle feedback and brushed percussion. Thelatter is a more crystalline guitar dirge with Hiroyuki's talking (itcan't really be called singing here) punctuating the song. "A Lot LikeYou" is as mystical as Ben Chasny has gotten recently and recalls theearlier Six Organs stuff, but perhaps the most Organistic track on thisalbum is "Bird & Sun & Clay," if only because it is the onesong which prominently features Chasny's vocals. The album concludeswith the short outro of "You Will Be Warm," a simple and delicateepilogue which, as a short yet transfixing song, is the exception thatproves the axiom above. Moreover, the song helps the album end morepleasurably than it began.

samples:

• Last Breath of the Bird
• Birds Sun Clay
• A Lot Like You