GROWING
Content: Recorded by the band in Olympia, Washington from 2003-2004 and mixed with Rex Ritter (Jessamine, Fontanelle and sunnO))) ) at Magnetic Park in Portland, Oregon in March and April 2004, The Soul of the Rainbow and the Harmony of Light takes Growing's expansive palette, blurring and disguising instrumental points of origin to a point where sheer sound defines itself with authority.
Now a duo with Kevin Doria on bass and guitar and Joe Denardo on guitar, Growing have pushed into the manipulation of feedback, hiss and static; wringing out waves of delay from their amps while retaining an earthbound mastery of crushing riffage. These grainy textures contrast with a clean, pulsing lushness that carries traces of birdsong and touches on natural environs and the passing of time.
Context: Since the release of The Sky's Run Into The Sea in August 2003, Growing have played a select number of shows, including the UK version of All Tomorrow's Parties (at the invitation of Mogwai). A number of older tape releases from the band are being reissued and the Italian Heroine label put out a split EP Growing recorded with M. Evan Burden of Get Hustle. In July the band took to the road for a tour of North America beginning with a performance at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art as a part of that institution's A Minimal Future? Art As Object 1958-1968 exhibit sound series. They will be returning to European shores in late summer for a comprehensive tour. Growing are an awesome live experience, and have been known to play quadrophonic sets with stacks of amps positioned in each corner of the room and the audience in the centre. Certainly a must see for fans of extreme sonic bombardment.
The title of this album is taken from an 1893 essay by Bainbridge Bishop concerning the relationships between colour and sound. The essay was subtitled "A Plea for a New Science." Bishop invented the colour organ in 1877, a musical device capable of playing both sound and corresponding light together or separately.