Windy & Carl: Consciousness CD/LP

Finally. It has been almost three long years since Windy Weber and Carl Hultgren took a plunge into sonic depths. And now, the duo surface with Consciousness- a welcoming release of ambience of which they are vanguards of casting. Their trademark-embroidered pillows of guitarscapes drenched in delays extend beyond the perceptual horizon, as do the touches of keyboards that are threaded by a bass guitar. The album was given birth to in an organic fashion; the writing and recording stages took place simultaneously at their Dearborn, MI, home onto 8-track. The next step was the mix where Hultgren would process the raw tracks by adding distortion and copious layers of effects until everything blended just right to make it sound something new altogether. The mid-fi disc begins with "The Sun", a warm trickling of thawing guitar that begins the sailing voyage of sound. The second track, "Balance (Trembling)" creates the illusion inherent when driving through the plains at night where one sees the lights of a megalopolis in the distance that does not seem to get any closer despite travelling rapidly towards it. "Resolution", the final piece, is like the sound coming from an exotically futuristic apparatus that sprays light onto on object in order to preserve it as an antiquity for the future. The Windy & Carl listening experience is akin to the period of peace when one is about to succumb to slumbering; the body is hypnotized yet the mind becomes more and more lucid - you begin to hear even more. Hence the title. And, the effect works wonderfully no matter what hour you play this disc at. (www.kranky.net)