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Search Result for Artist eric arn
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FTR 692CD
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"This is our fifth release with the Vienna-based guitarist Eric Arn, and as with each of his albums, Kost Nix (No Cost) is different from all that have preceded it. Eric is a musician whose interests and techniques are constantly evolving, so it has been a pleasure to observe his evolution from a power raunch generator (with Crystalized Movements, then Primordial Undermind) into the wildly unpredictable improviser he has become. This is the third duo album we've done with him, following Paranza Corta (FTR 384LP) with Margaret Unknown, and Hydromancy (FTR 493LP) with Jasmine Pender, and it is another stone killer. Eric's sparring partner this time is Eyal Maoz, the great Israel-born, NYC-based guitarist who has long been an important part of John Zorn's circle. Eyal has had loads of projects and solo outings, and also plays in a dizzying array of styles, so this match-up was a dream date. The recording was done live in October 2021, at VEKKS Vienna, and the set is explosive. Because both players are incredibly mutable (and I have no visual clues), it's all but impossible for me to tell who exactly is doing what. The massive sound of their collaboration creates its own unique sonic field. The grace of their interaction makes it seem like they've been doing this for years, but we can just chalk that up to a combination of good ears and good reflexes. They also display more skill and taste than most musicians can manifest in a year. The three long pieces move through a vast array of moods and tones. 'Quiet Concessions' has passages of almost classical delicacy, merging into tangled webs of zoned space improvs akin to Sonic Youth's extended string break-downs, with nods to the shattered weirdness of the Dead's '68 noise eruptions. 'Luminous Motion' starts like a collaboration between Donald Miller and Hans Reichel, with a drunk baby controlling their knob settings, until it settles into a valley of low twangs and drones. 'Optimus Locus ad Finem' is a slow, damp bramble with light fingered weirdness generating a very special kind of tension. And that's it. The breadth of this collaboration will definitely make you want to see these guys live, if only so you can see who's doing what. How likely that is, I cannot say, but hey -- why not dream big? Life is short, art is long. Don't be a sissy." --Byron Coley
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FTR 493LP
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"Here is the third of our LPs documenting the new work of Vienna-based expatriate guitarist, Eric Arn. The first was the solo Orphic Resonance (FTR 281LP), the second, Paranza Corta (FTR 384LP), documenting duo work with Austrian guitarist Margaret Unknown. And now the third features duet recordings with English avant garde cellist Jasmine Pender, who also performs more noisily using the soubriquet, Rotten Bliss. Pender and Arn first met at a 2018 festival in Krems, Austria. They played a duo show soon after, and this recording session followed in August of that year, when Ms. Pender was passing through Vienna. The blend of their instruments is a strange and delicate meeting. The music involves a conversation of tonal improvising in which the separation of the instruments (so different on the surface) manages to blend in a way that component parts submerge fully into a sort of Third Mind-style musical language. The material here is basically live and, according to Eric, 'lightly-edited, no overdubs or post-processing.' The first side-long piece. 'In illo tempore,' is a mosaic of layered sheets of sound, fitted together as they gently float through space and time. The second side-long piece, 'The Serpent Ophis,' is a slowly built, chiming, breathing mass of circular gesticulation that effortlessly rises to create a shimmering, expanding plateau of sound. As with Eric's other LPs, Hyrdomancy is a wonderful dive into the unknown. Can't wait for the next one." --Byron Coley, 2020
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FTR 384LP
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"For his second Feeding Tube LP, following the superb solo outing Orphic Resonance (FTR 281LP, 2017), Eric Arn has chosen to team up with the Austrian shapeshifter Margaret Unknown (aka Max Bogner), for a set of acoustic guitar duets. Eric's history is well known via solo work, duets with Tom Carter, and hard psych playing from his pre-Vienna days with both Primordial Undermind and Crystalized Movements. We knew Margaret mostly for his work with (In) The Abyssity of the Grounds, who backed Linda Sharrock on her massive Gods 3LP set (which should be a fixture in every home). Recorded live at the mo.ë space in Vienna, Paranza Corta (Italian for a Sicilian style knife fight) is far less of a combat situation than a deeply explored intersection of stringed logic. Without being able to tell who plays what (and although the tracks are named after various bladed weapons), the music here is a fight, in the sense that the opening scene of West Side Story is a fight. While choreographed only on a subliminal level, these two guys allow each other a lot of space to change directions, and almost seem to be working in tandem, so immediate are their reflexive actions. The heft of the interplay here recalls some of the nylon string collaborations Eugene Chadbourne did back in the Parachute days, although he wasn't big on guitar duets (at least on record). The playing here offers the same brilliant mix of organically achieved weirdness that can begin as a gentle outside motion, and then grow to devilish proportions without ever going too far. If there even is such a thing. If there is (and I acknowledge the possibility), the music on Paranza Corta does not go there. It's a brilliant tapestry of gesture, reaction and recontextualization. Of course, as I write those words, I begin to realize that maybe it is more like a knife fight than I'd thought. We should really ask Russ Tamblyn what he thinks." --Byron Coley, 2018
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FTR 281LP
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"Near the end of his days, John Fahey told me he was sick and tired of solo guitar records. This statement was partly designed to take me aback (as was often his tact), but it was also true. He seemed genuinely bored by most guitar players, especially those who were traveling in the shoes he'd first worn on his own early records. That said, I'm pretty sure he would have loved Eric Arn's Orphic Resonance. The first time I ever saw Eric play was as part of the classic second line-up of Crystalized Movements. He was a monster of raunch-stun binary-functionalism, and this continued as he moved out of New England for forays with the LA/Boston/SF/Austin/Vienna-based Primordial Undermind and California's The Outsideinside. After that, he moved to Austria, where he lives today, and began performing and recording in a more overtly avant-garde direction. The set I caught at 2015's Festival Of Endless Gratitude in Copenhagen was a lovely buzzing, shimmering web of sound. Parts of this new LP are like that, other parts are absolutely different. On Orphic Resonance, Eric moves through vast style fields with absolute surety. He can generate massive drone-throbs that would make even that old crank Fahey smile. He can play with sound sheets in a way that moves even deeper into experimental realms. He can play acoustic fantasia sprawls that would have made Fahey swear. He can throat sing better than John ever did. Making for one hell of a dandy album, and one that has a surprise lurking around each and every corner. This is the first of Eric's solo sides to make it to vinyl, and we sincerely hope there are many more to comes. Discerning listeners are sure to say the same." --Byron Coley, 2016. Edition of 300.
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