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Jim White & Marisa Anderson – Swallowtail (2024)
Review:
Drummer Jim White and guitarist Marisa Anderson have crafted such a distinctive sound on their respective instruments and as soon as their second album begins, there can be no mistaking them. Like 2020’s The Quickening, Swallowtail is a duo record in the truest sense, with no other contributors present, but this feels like a very different set to their debut, with spikier songs like that album’s Last Days absent in favour of a more consistent free-flowing meditation. Recorded off the coast of Victoria, Australia, with a focus on improvisation and musical conversation, Swallowtail subtly ebbs and flows in its structure, mimicking the sea, with the shifts in tempo and mood happening gradually, almost to avoid disturbing the environment around the sound. This style is present from the off, with Anderson’s guitar on opener Aerie coming in like morning light, soft and glittering. White’s drums have more weight to them than the guitar, but the touch is still quite gentle, with the beats opening up as the song develops and allowing space into the sound. The main body of the album consists of Bitterroot Valley, a suite of music split into three parts. Water is a real beauty, with the softest of guitar hammer-ons creating a stuttering rhythm that the drums lock into. Anderson continues playing a shimmering guitar line, with lovely bass notes peppering the bars, while White finds a sturdy rhythm and has fun knocking cymbals, disrupting his pattern. Tree sees Anderson’s guitar playing a slightly more spare part, which in turn allows the drums to fill some of the space. The pair seem happy to tangle themselves around the other’s notes on this one, giving the piece a knottier feel before White’s snare brings in some snarl. Further on, although the above suite occupies the trunk of the set, Peregrine feels like the key track. Running at over ten minutes, this one has plenty of time to establish itself and does so with sparse playing, Anderson picking lines at leisure, creating cyclical clusters of mesmerising notes that White’s drums dance around in places, step away from in others and then return to with more fire. The freedom the duo have is best demonstrated here, with each seemingly comfortable to play in their own way, while knowing the other is sympathetic to the music and will adjust to fit. — klofmag.com
Track List:
01 - Aerie
02 - Bitterroot Valley Suite I: Water
03 - Bitterroot Valley Suite II: Tree
04 - Bitterroot Valley Suite III: Wind
05 - Peregrine
06 - Aurora
Media Report:
Genre: alternative folk
Origin: USA 
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)
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