BURCH, JEFF - Samum Suite

"Composed and recorded at the edge of the Sahara, Jeff Burch searches here for an unfamiliar beauty in old timbres. As a child of migration, over the course of this new work he gracefully transfigures pre-mercantilist desert folk song and deep meditations of our early cities. With the strength and shape of eternity, hushed voices and yawning flutes ascend to radiant vibrations of levantine string and tamazgha percussion; coalescing in a seductive din that traces great arcs across oceans, continents and oral histories. For bağlama, electronics, organ, percussion, string, tape, ūd, vocals and woodwind. Additional percussion; Robert Smith (Rhyton), woodwind; Ela Stiles, mastered by Christopher Griffin (Tony Conrad, Pauline Oliveros, Elaine Radigue). Artwork by Baya Mahieddine. From Asia, the Sonoran Desert and the South Pacific, Burch currently resides in New York City. He has released with Important Records and co-founded The Spring Press, on which he released his recent LP, and another in duo with the late Tres Warren (Compound Eye, Messages, Psychic Ills). "A ghostly amalgam of clangorous cymbals and bells that unfurls with a measured cadence... placing him on the altar not that far from luminaries Tony Conrad, John Cale and La Monte Young." --Decoder "... An atmosphere and sonic palette that wouldn't be out of place on an epic of vintage European psychedelia." --Avant Music News "The vestigial spirits of Tony Conrad and Alice Coltrane seem to ooze from the music's percolating pores. Gonglike reverberations punctuate an endlessly roiling cauldron of strings, electronics, and percussion..." --Textura" - Cassauna