Altered Zones

It's always great to hear some new music from perennial San Franciscan dronesman and Root Strata head Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Consistently churning out sublime and expansive soundscapes as a solo artist and with friends, here Ledesma collaborates with Trevor Montgomery as Isidore Ducasse to brilliant effect. Their self-titled LP on Blackest Rainbow is a sequence of 14 lush and meditative vignettes ranging from one to four minutes, that taken together, act as varied explorations on some central themes: the minimal noises and silences of nature; the secrets of the nocturnal; the ecstatic. On the suitably ethereal-titled track, “Bellowing Like Flayed Elephants,” one gets a sense of the romantic evocations and aesthetic qualities that unify the whole record. The deep, granular drones that undulate amongst the elegiac outpourings of guitar seem to be a grand expounding of nature's awe, while also harbouring some inexplicable sadness for the passing light of day. Both mournful and celebatory, the poignancy of these tracks linger for much longer than their length. --Daniel Gottlieb, Altered Zones

MP3: Isidore Ducasse: "Bellowing Like Flayed Elephants"

Isidore Ducasse's self-titled LP is available now via Blackest Rainbow, and a number of the other tracks can be streamed at Isidore Ducasse's Bandcamp