THE CRAY TWINS

For In the Company of Architects, their second album, The Cray Twins’ Paul Baran and Gordon Kennedy has assembled a virtual collective of musicians and sound artists, collaborating with only selective access to the contributions of others, and to the whole.

The core duo of The Cray Twins take on the role of directors, composers and assemblers, in the process amplifying not only the performance of the collective, but also natural and artificial interferences, incorporating accidental sound sources encountered when arranging the album.

Starting with the almost 40 minute long title track, In the Company of Architects slowly unfolds into a dense exploration of stratified sound. The result is a fascinating piece of acousmatic music; a mix of phonography and distortion, improvisation and unnerving silence, time, tension and release.

Minimal but not minimal.

01. In the Company of Architects (38:10)

02. The Absence of Architects (05:42)

03. Anarchitects (12:25)

Performers:

Paul Baran: Electronics, chapel organ, samples, Buchla

Gordon Kennedy: Electronics, organ, mellotron, samples, keys

Ryoko Akama: Modular synthesizer

Werner Dafeldecker: Guitar

Bruno Duplant: Chimes

Sergio Merce: Microtonal saxophone

Antoine Beuger: Flute

Kai Fagaschinski: Bass clarinet

Jessica Evelyn: Spoken word

Lavinia Blackwall: Soprano

(label info)