CRAY TWINS, THE - IN THE COMPANY OF ARCHITECTS (CD)

"For In the Company of Architects, their second album, The Cray Twins' Paul Baran and Gordon Kennedy have assembled a virtual collective of musicians and sound artists, collaborating with only selective access to the contributions of others, and to the whole. The core duo of The Cray Twins take on the role of directors, composers and assemblers, in the process amplifying not only the performance of the collective, but also natural and artificial interferences, shaping accidental sound sources encountered when arranging the album. Starting with the almost 40 minute long title track, In the Company of Architects slowly unfolds into a hazy exploration of stratified sound. The result is a fascinating piece of acousmatic music; a mix of phonography and distortion, improvisation and unnerving silence, time, tension and release. Minimal but not minimal." (label info) Paul Baran: electronics, chapel organ, samples, Buchla, Gordon Kennedy: electronics, organ, Mellotron, samples, keys, Ryoko Akama: modular synthesizer, Werner Dafeldecker: guitar, Bruno Duplant: chimes, Sergio Merce: microtonal saxophone, Antoine Beuger: flute, Kai Fagaschinski: bass clarinet, Jessica Evelyn: spoken word , Lavinia Blackwall: soprano