Joy Shapes
cd (krk68) kranky
- Here, Not Here
- Stroke
- Joy Shapes
- Natural Light
- Voice For You
Charalambides new album is certainly not for the faint of heart. Five songs stretch and crawl over 75 minutes, with Christine Carter finding a new fearlessness in her voice that is sure to draw compasions to Patty Waters or the early work of Meredith Monk. Joy Shapes is the first studio album recorded by Charalambides in a long time. The main tracks were recorded in June 2003, with subsequent obverdubs, mixing and mastering done throughout the summer and early fall of 2003 including one night of vocal recording done in what Tom Carter calls a "lost evening".
Charalambides have created a place for themselves that absorbs and atmoizes blues, psychedelia, gospel, improv and folk since their first recodings emerged in 1993. Joy Shapes demonstrates that the trio is withour equal. As Marcus Boon wrote in The Wire: "here is a truly 21st century experimental ethnic music that explores quietness and stasis... in the same way that musicians in the second half of the 20th century discovered amplification noise and speed.