This excerpt from ‘For Baroque Lute, Tapes and Resonant Space’ by Gregg Kowalsky and Jozef Van Wissem has been taking its turns in my mind from the minute I heard it. Even though I’m not aware of the way it ends, or of its beginning for all I know, I can still meditate to it for 6 minutes, only stopping for a few seconds just to rewind to a comfortable state of mind and listen to those eastern guitar sounds once again coming to the foreground. Out on Sept 4th by Amish Records / Required Wreckers, this blissful experiment is more than just another release; it’s a magical experience.
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“For Baroque Lute, Tapes and Resonant Space” documents Kowalsky’s on going tape chants process, a project previously realized on both his Battery Townsley (2011) and Tape Chants (2009) LPs. For this iteration, Kowalsky tuned square and sine waves to Dutch lutanist Jozef van Wissem’s lute and then played these recordings through cassette players. Though they have collaborated previously, this performance at Issue Project Room in October 2011 is the first chronicling of van Wissem and Kowalksy’s duo-work.
