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Oakland experimentalist Gregg Kowalsky named his terrific new album, Tape Chants (Kranky), after an elaborate live sound project where he “played” several mono tape machines arranged around a room. The recording makes no attempt to capture the spatial effects produced by that setup, but it’s still rich and engrossing: Kowalsky manipulates tape speed, volume, and other variables, creating mutable mixes of the droning, resonant source material on each tape: piano, analog synthesizer, contact mikes, motors, sine-wave oscillators, gongs, water, glass, electronics.
Considering how good the album is with only two stereo channels, I’m sure the live experience of the project–with tape machines all over the room–will be extraordinary. Kowalsky shares a bill with Ben Bracken and Brent Gutzeit tonight at Enemy.
