WOW 001

Louche
Guests of the Earth

Chosen by Venue magazine as one of the 'Top Sounds of 2001', Louche have been playing together as part of the larger mopti collective since 1997, but this is their first recording as a duo. All tracks were completely improvised, and recorded live (apart from the bass guitar overdubs, and the layering of two improvisations at the beginning of track 3).

Framed by two berimbau solos, and making use of other parallels and symmetries, the music suggests, perhaps, a journey through a pattern of landscapes, as much spiritual as physical.

'Canticle', for instance, builds up layers of mournful dizi (Chinese pipe), out of which emerge subliminal bass drones and a sinuous flugelhorn loop. Around this track skitter the short 'Shifty' pieces, which use a single thumb-piano loop as the inspiration for markedly different moods and textures.

Another key track, 'Ping (For Emily)', was the first thing played that day, and is a complete, unedited piece, which seemed to find its own fully-formed shape as it unfolded (heightened by the addition of Jim Barrís perfectly-judged bass to its final section).

'Space music for a giant horizon' (Venue)

Release date: October 2001

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