Monument

by Thom JurekTom Carter is Charalambides, guitarist. Together with Christina Carter, and now Heather Leigh Murray, they make up one of the most captivating, mysterious, and enigmatic free improv rock groups on the planet. Monument is a solo recording made entirely on a lap steel guitar, recorded in 2001 and previously issued in an edition of 55 CD-Rs on the Wholly Other label. Both pieces are entitled "Monument," and they could not be more different from one another. The first one is a whisper barely two minutes long; it comes from and returns to shadow very quickly, nearly bodiless. The second is a sprawling 47-plus-minute cut that examines as many permutations, dynamics, sonic inquiries, and articulations as can be evidenced in that time. Drones, feedback, washes of sound, plucked, strummed, returned and openly vibrated strings conjure ghostly figures form the ether only to return them there as the next one emerges bearing a trace of the previously "visible" one. Eventually tensions build and release until the steel is roaring with overtones and dissonance that blend, shape, and cover one another moving through transmutations in dynamic and texture. Sure, this is experimental music, but it's listenable, engaging, and seductive, too.