CONRAD & JENNIFER WALSHE, TONY - In The Merry Month Of May

"In the Merry Month of May is the final studio recording of the late, great Tony Conrad, and the first duo release with Jennifer Walshe, one of Conrad's most important collaborators in the final decade of his life. Befitting these two absurdly gifted hell-raisers, this is a wild, improvisatory flaying of song, with Walshe's clarion voice at the heart of the enterprise. The sheer sonic force of opener 'In the Merry Month of May' recalls the ecstatic charge of Conrad's Slapping Pythagoras. Ramshackle, go-for-broke performances provide gist for your next twelve months of earworms. Conrad's and Walshe's prior work are about the only relevant reference points, and even then In the Merry Month of May is a one-of-a-kind concoction whipped up by two fearless and often peerless souls. It's a joy to hear the two of them, with such manifest mutual regard and commitment to busting a gut. According to Walshe, early in their collaboration Conrad related how they
'first began working together after they ran from service as servants of King Pepy I at the end of Old Kingdom Egypt. They were subsequently monks in Carolingean Gaul during the period roughly 820 to 850, Venetian courtesans at Pope Eugene's court during the mid-15th century, and prisoners on what was then Van Diemen's Land in 1843, where Walshe tried to secure Conrad's escape using 'remote viewing' techniques. The unfortunate outcome of the latter incident resulted in Conrad's work as a stage magician in Australia in the 19th century, where in trying an audience riot, they both accidentally ingested leprosy vectors and subsequently lost three legs and two arms between them.'" - Blue Chopsticks.