Ghosting is a three piece from Portland, OR comprised of JP Jenkins, Janice McKeachern, and Zachary Reno. Reno runs the Onomato imprint which has released some stellar limited run cdrs and has an amazing box set of Portland artists on the horizon. This self-titled album, along with the similarly excellent ?So That She Might Be Without Any Of The Little Luxuries To Which She Was Accustomed,? is my first exposure to the group.

Ghosting deal very definitely in drones ? polyphonic, swirling maelstroms of pure shimmering sound. This record's lone track is an epic forty-minute excursion that opens up at a glacial pace. Low hums and clear, ringing bell tones move in slow orbits as throbbing, looping bass notes provide a loose rhythmic structuring. There is a palpable tension that builds within these meditative flights. Ghosting guide the listener through sidereal patches of ever-thickening drone, introducing a searing, processed guitar riff around the six minute mark which cuts through the fog to merge with squeals of looped feedback and rattled or bowed percussion. Shortly after, what sounds like piano or keyboard notes are tinkled and looped to join the fray, and clean, plucked notes ring out, shuddering and spinning in place.

The piece's gorgeous summit comes into view at the eight minute mark, as a wall of slow burning static crunch emerges, threatening to devour the beautiful, haunting sound mass that has given birth to it. This static depth charge become itself looped and is developed into a beast of staggering sonic beauty, utterly ravaging the preceding harmonic tranquility, until it dissolves into a bed of molten hiss and churn that sounds like field recordings of some futuristic train station or airport on the sun. The piece's denouement is jaw dropping, with the ringing, clean drones and loops found at the onset returning this time with a bit more menace, as though they've lost their innocence along the intense aural journey.

If pressed, I would locate sonic touchstones within the Double Leopards' synapse-gobbling peaks, the Taj Mahal Travelers' juxtapositions of light and dark, and the transcendent clarity of ?Soul of the Rainbow and the Harmony of Light?-era Growing. However, Ghosting has a sound all of their own. With both available releases limited to fifty, I strongly implore all fans of the above-mentioned outfits, and drone/electronic/improv music in general, to seek these out ? they may be gone already! Recommended. 8/10 -- Alex Cobb (28 June, 2006)