Black Vines – BV (Fluid Audio UK)

In addition to his five solo studio LPs, Topeka, KS experimental cellist/multi-instrumentalist Aaron Martin also likes to make albums with others – see 2012’s Woven Tide (with Sweden’s Dag Rosenqvist, released as From the Mouth of the Sun), or 2013’s The Blizzard that Birthed Her 10” (with UK sound artist Orla Wren and flautist Isnaj Dui) and Day Has Ended (with Berlin composer Christoph Berg). This latest collaboration is with Oakland, CA (by way of Albuquerque, NM) drone/psychedelic/metal practitioner and synth/sitar player Joseph Angelo, who also records under the name Luperci. The eight-track, hour-long BV has an unusual arrangement: while Martin and Angelo have composed the first four songs, the final four are “reworkings” of those same songs – with shortened, one-word song titles – by the aforementioned Rosenqvist (who has released 30 albums, many under the now-defunct moniker Jasper TX).

Given Angelo’s penchant for noise, it’s no surprise that the more soothing sounds of Martin’s most recent solo LP Comet’s Coma (see my review here) have been replaced by darker, heavier textures and tones. The ominous opener “Willow Choir” evokes a ship lost at sea during a storm, while “Fields Burning at Dusk” is so claustrophobic, you’ll feel as if you’re sinking to the ocean floor in a torpedo-damaged submarine, as a piercing, nail-on-chalkboard metallic din echoes from all sides. “The Shadows We Cast” begins in a similar vein, but its second half inexplicably turns chiming and twinkly, recalling a spring-fresh, dew-misty, bird-chirping morning in a Brazilian tropical forest. This serene vibe continues on the funereal “Glass Memory,” as Martin’s billowy cello and Angelo’s resonating sitar drift tenderly over a relaxing mid-afternoon rain shower.

On his half, Rosenqvist rejiggers each of Martin’s and Angelo’s four originals so thoroughly, they’re almost unrecognizable. And you’ll be hard-pressed to hear any cellos or sitars under his dense, dissonant layering. But his alterations are equally engrossing. “Fields” is like a distortion-filled, static-spewing electric wire or dentist’s drill gone haywire, “Glass” conjures up an ethereal, elevating Space Shuttle ride through gravity-challenged galaxies, “Willow” has a floorboard-vibrating, jet engine-like rumble, and “Shadows” resembles pulsating helicopter blades or spritzing lawn sprinklers. Treated as a split LP, BV offers up two distinct wrinkles of mind-expanding ambient noise and sound instrumentals. (fluidaudio.co.uk)

Bandcamp – Aaron Martin
Bandcamp – Luperci
Bandcamp – Dag Rosenqvist