A Winged Victory for the Sullen
a winged victory for the sullen – requiem for the static king, part 2 (from “st“, erased tapes cd/lp, 2011)
Once in a blue moon an album sounds like nothing you ever heard before. This is that kind of album. Adam Wiltzie (Stars of the Lid) and Dustin O’Halloran composed and recorded seven instrumental tracks – details in quote below – that strike an emotional chord somewhere between being in a floating tank and staring into a fire. Music as an anathema to everything that is not part Core. Check out this video and the track above; special doesn’t begin to cover in my opinion.
The duo agreed to leave the comfort zone of their home studios and develop the recordings with the help of large acoustic spaces, hunting down a selection of 9ft grand pianos that had the ability to deliver extreme sonic low end. Other traditional instrumentation was used including string quartet, French horn, and bassoon, but always juxtaposed is the sound of drifting guitar washed melodies. The recordings began with one late night session in the famed Grunewald Church in Berlin on a 1950s imperial Bösendorfer piano and strings were added in the historic East Berlin DDR radio studios along the River Spree. (more)
