Barn Owl will be at the ISSUE Project Room on November 18
ISSUE Project Room
The Old American Can Factory
232 Third St., third floor, Brooklyn
Thursday, November 18, $10, 8:00
718-330-0313
www.myspace.com/barnowlband
www.issueprojectroom.org
On Barn Owl’s brand-new album, ANCESTRAL STAR (Thrill Jockey, November 2010), San Francisco duo Evan Caminiti and Jon Porras take listeners on a sonic journey through inner space and outer consciousness (or is that outer space and inner consciousness?), creating gorgeous dronescapes that feel as if they are about to explode at any moment. But instead, they remain floating within an ambient darkness that gently rumbles just beneath the soul. Both Caminiti and Porras play guitar, with Porras adding drums and harmonium; other contributors include Marielle V. Jakobsons on violin on two songs, the Norman Conquest (who produced the record) on modular synth on the title track, and one of Caminiti and Porras’s other groups, Portraits, lending Eastern percussion to “Incantation.” Several tracks, including the Western-like “Visions in Dust,” feature background vocals by Caminiti and Porras as well as the Norman Conquest. The names of the songs give you an idea of what you’re in for — “Cavern Hymn,” “Twilight,” “Awakening,” the aforementioned “Ancestral Star” and “Incantation” — as Barn Owl winds them through improvisational experimentation that result in brief, beautiful excursions as well as longer, drifting head trips. It’s not all doom and gloom, but it’s also not high-spirited electronica. Barn Owl will be at the Issue Project Room on November 18 with High Aura’d, Tom Carter, and Loren Connors.