Wrekmeister Harmonies / We Love to Look at the Carnage – CD

Description

• 5″ Cardboard Sleeve

Track Listing:

1.Midnight To Six 7:03
2.Still Life With Prick Cancer 10:34
3.Coyotes of Central Park 4:37
4.The Rat Catcher 10:22
5.Immolation 8:47

Wrekmeister Harmonies music is as expansive as it is deeply personal. Comprised of a revolving cast of musicians around enigmatic constantsJR RobinsonandEsther Shaw, collaboration has always been a cornerstone of the groups creative process. While early albums were written for large ensembles and to be performed in grandiose public spaces, more recent recordings peeled back the layers of orchestral bombast to focus in on the raw emotion at their heart of their compositions.We Love to Look at the Carnage, the groups latest outing represents some of their most subtle and powerful work to date. The album sees the core duo of guitarist/vocalist Robinson and multi-instrumentalist Shaw augmented with longtime friend and collaboratorThor Harris(Swans) on percussion and for the first timeJamie Stewart(Xiu Xiu) on electronics, introducing surprising new sonics into Wrekmeister Harmonies minimalist arrangements without sacrificing their intense intimacy.

We Love to Look at the Carnagecharts a restless journey beginning in the middle of the night and ending in the small hours of the morning. Robinsons brooding lyrics grapple with phantoms both real and imagined, apparitions amplified by the feverish anxiety of insomnia. Shaws ethereal vocals dueling with Robinsons baritone create essential tension. Her stellar keyboard and violin work are on full display, driving much of the stripped-down album forward through emotional lines of melody.

In keeping with the albums stark lyrical content, much ofWe Love to Look at the Carnagewas written in relative isolation. During the deep freeze of the New York winter, the duo decamped from their home in Brooklyn to a cabin in Woodstock. Harris and Stewart were then sent the tracks to contribute additional layers however they were moved to, which were then mixed and edited with producerMartin Bisiat hisBC Studios. Like much of Wrekmeisters music over the years, Carnage draws heavily from literature. Influenced byMarcus AureliusMeditations, they find strength in stoicism. Robinson explains: Stoicism is often misunderstood as being cold and indifferent toward difficult situations but its actually more appropriately described as hanging a more positive frame on the circumstances through the practice of negative visualization, that things could always be worse.

We Love to Look at the Carnagetraverses an emotional landscape, through a metaphorical night with moments of calm between the dark storms, each piece guiding us towards dawn and its promise. It is a celebration of the beauty of endurance, the hope in stoically moving against the dark forces that invade our thoughts and lives.