Laura Gibson/Ethan Rose Collaboration Due in February-- Local Cut

Laura Gibson/Ethan Rose Collaboration Due in February

November 20th, 2009 [10:33AM] Posted by: Michael Mannheimer | 2 COMMENTS

I’ve probably said this here before, but no album has more excited for 2010 than Laura Gibson’s collaboration with sound sculptor Ethan Rose. Though we still don’t have too much concrete information on the release, we do know this: the record is called Bridge Carols, and it’s out on February 9 via Holocene Music.

A few months ago I spoke to Gibson about Bridge Carols (at the time she couldn’t reveal the title), and she mentioned that the basis of the project was to make each other uncomfortable. Rose’s music, until this point, has mostly been wordless, while Gibson has often fought to escape her tag as a folky singer-songwriter. Gibson said that many of the compositions were created almost on the spot, as she improved and sang over Rose’s clanging, elliptical backdrops. And judging from the first thing we’ve heard from the pair—the floating, almost weightless “Sun”—it’s also going to be a record of understated beauty. I wrote about “Sun” when it was included on the 2009 PDX Pop Now! compilation, but here’s another peak.

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From the duo’s MySpace page:

It began as a conversation of mutual appreciation and curiosity – a shared desire to challenge old ways of working. Ethan had mostly distanced his music from words, while Laura had often felt bound by them.

They began experimenting with different methods of collaboration. Inspired by Laura’s voice, Ethan began building soundscapes, while Laura looked through piles of notebooks, coming across old phrases that never found home in verses or rhymes. They began recording Laura singing these unused writings.

As the project developed, Laura began improvising lyrics and wordless vocalizations, stream of consciousness singing that tumbled out of her in long trailing waves. They recorded in the basement, the forest, and the field – each session having its own unique mood as Laura reflected from subject to subject.

Ethan then took the recorded words and vocalizations from these sessions – cutting them into bits and pieces – rearranging and juxtaposing them against each other to stretch them into new musical poems. These reconstructed lyrical fragments maintained the tone of Laura’s original improvisations while allowing new themes and meanings to emerge. With these vocal collages in place, Ethan would reshape tones and sounds around Laura’s words. The resulting pieces developed into songs. The songs developed into a record.

Links:
Laura Gibson & Ethan RoseSpace
Holocene Music

Photo courtesy of LG & ER

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