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To my ears, Growing share littleor nothing in common with the aforementioned acts. Their brand of droneis clean and polished, harmonically precise, thick, substantial andevocative; not noisy, chaotic or unstructured, and not matched withpseudo-metal aesthetic trappings. It shares much more in common withcertain avant-garde explorers of the drone (LaMonte Young, Tony Conrad,Terry Riley), or even a bit like Nurse With Wound's elegiac dronemasterpiece Soliloquy for Lilith. This long-delayed split CDdrives home my point. Growing's contribution, a 19-minute pieceentitled "Firmament," is not doom-y, funereal, earthbound or dirge-y inthe slightest; it's a hypnotically beautiful ambient work combiningguitar and bass harmonics with limited electronic elements formulatedto lift the listener into a heavenly firmament of clouds. The slow,unfocused drones buzz, vibrate and harmonize at unexpected moments tosuggest a kind of lazy melody, slowly smearing out cumulonimbus cloudson the crystal blue horizon. The technical precision with which Growingrecord and produce their music is stunning; at high volumes played onspeakers, the piece takes on quadraphonic qualities, as the lowerfrequencies vibrate random items in the room, creating another level ofphysical immersion. Sharing this disc with Growing is a solo piece fromMark Evan Burden, who some may know from his involvement in Get Hustleand Glass Candy, or his solo work as Silentist. His piece "10.24.02" isan avant-garde compositional piece for piano, percussion andelectronics. The press notes compare this piece to Cage, Ligeti andConlon Nancarrow, none of which I'm terribly familiar with, so I amwithout a real reference point for this music. For thenon-academically-minded such as myself, the piece still holds a lot ofinterest, with an intense, energetic performance by Burden on piano,locking himself into complex grooves which grow in complexity with eachrepetition as treble-heavy electronic tones bubble up and take over theforeground. The piece slowly develops over its 15-minute length,traveling through several movements, increasing echo and reverb untilthe piano blends together with the electronics in a nebulous andsuggestive tangle. Though avant-garde piano composition is not usuallya big turn-on for me, I really enjoyed this piece immensely.samples:
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