Henry Kaiser - Ed Pettersen: We Call All Times Soon

Listening to these experimental guitar duets may relegate daily life to an out of sight, out of mind condition. Thus, world-renowned avant-garde guitarist Henry Kaiser is also noted for his TV and film scores. And adventurous genre-hopping artist Ed Pettersen uses an 8-string Weissenborn-style lap steel guitar to help fuse an oscillating soundtrack for one's psyche on this captivating studio effort. Whereas, Kaiser's 19-string harp guitar work generates a constant flow of reverberating soundscapes, as the duo renders a spellbinding platform with no breaks in the action.

Here, boundaries are not part of the equation. The duo's swirling soundscapes include avant-garde Americana, unclassifiable free-form improvisational dialogues and notions of treks into the cosmos via alien dichotomies and weaving background treatments. Other motifs are designed with stiff, close-handed plucking and the incorporation of resonating electronic effects and fervent exchanges.

"Triphibian Atomicar" is built on loosely concocted subplots and detailed manipulations amid weeping notes, radiating imagery of a dour situation or maybe a social breakdown. Moreover, Pettersen's slide work and presumably Kaiser's harmonics spawn a study in contrasts along with edgy chord passages and strutting riffs. On "Repelatron Skyway," the musicians' crusty acoustic and plugged-in guitar phrasings, revved up with noise-shaping processes, are tempered by nicely placed harmonics. Overall, these multi-stringed guitars elicit cascades of circular and twangy voicings that serve as a foundation for the program's holistic musical space. It's a cunning endeavor, summarized up by Pettersen who states, "Musically and philosophically when you don't have to talk about it beforehand and you just play, you can make some pretty creative music."

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