It’s an interesting idea – record unrehearsed piano pieces direct to the Voice Memo software that comes with an iPhone, then allow a second artist to make such additions as they see fit afterwards. It’s also an approach which leaves itself open to claims of ‘flippancy’, a notion rightly rejected by label Crow Versus Crow, who say the recordings are “considered, concentrated distillations of reflected emotional experience, precise and lyrical.”
Which they are. Short, one and two minute pieces by Euan Alexander Millar-McMeeken aka glacis, contemplative but never slow, introspective but completely accessible, across which Fraser McGowan of Caught in the Wake Forever pastes and interweaves snippets of sound, abrading the edges of the piano with domestic backgrounds and the muted refrain of repetitive mechanics and misfiring electronics. The additions range from mere hints of rough interference to distinct instrumentation given equal weight to Euan’s piano, but in every case the collaboration works to create something greater than the individual elements.
If you only listen to one track, listen to this:
Available on digital download and as a limited edition cassette.
https://crowversuscrow.bandcamp.com/album/version-delineation
