Henry Kaiser + Jim O’Rourke – Tomorrow Knows Where You Live
Henry Kaiser has been working in underground improv music circles since the 1970s, and was one of the first American free improv guitarists. He was influenced by one of the original free improv guitarists of the ’60s, Derek Bailey. Jim O’Rourke is a composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist who came to prominence in the ’90s. Kaiser and O’Rourke met in 1990 at Company Week, an annual improv music festival organized by Bailey. They enjoyed playing together so much that they decided to record a CD together. Hooray! Released the following year by Canadian label Victo, Tomorrow Knows Where You Live is a long, 73-minute collection of free improv on electric and acoustic guitar in a duo setting with no overdubs.
Throughout much of the proceedings, Kaiser employs an array of pedals to shoot out a barrage of electrical chaos, while O’Rourke plugs straight into his amp and effectively matches and / or supports it all. As the sounds shift abruptly from effects-laden electric minefields to stark, empty atmospherics to shredding, delay pedal curlycut fries hovering over a sparse backdrop to plinking, jittery acoustic shards to plaintive fingerpicking with minimal background washes to sweet licks peeking out from garbled chaos, it soon becomes apparent after this CD starts spinning that these two guys aren’t at all shy about traversing all kinds of musical terrain. The lengthy liner notes even mention a collision of new age and industrial. I guess I can hear that. More accurately, Tomorrow Knows Where You Live is simply the perfect after-dinner mint for those who love their music difficult yet beautiful and their shirts hairy.
Label: Victo Catalog Number: VICTO CD 014 Format: CD Packaging: Jewel case Tracks: 8 Country: Canada Released: 1991 More: Discogs
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