R Keenan Lawler & John Krausbauer's “Spectre of radiants” is a droning, everlasting buzz of strings, gently undulating and intersecting.
Unconventionally played, as usual, the resonator guitars and the banjos, builds the perfect stream of sound to accompany your longest days.
Fitting in the ultraminimalist/drone panorama, this acoustic gem follow the lineage draw by authours like Phill Niblock, Tony Conrad or Elaine Radigue, mixing and confonting it with the direct attitude toward sound of people like Jim O'Rourke to finally build another chapter in the investigation on acoustic and physics that underline the very musical spirit of the authors.
R Keenan Lawler is a Louisville, Kentucky based multi-instrumentalist, improviser, composer, and sound artist. Influenced and obsessed by post-punk, jazz, free improvisation, ancient and modern classical music, blues, nature, non-western music and a philosophy of "transcendence through sound." He is best known for developing a highly focused idiosyncratic language on the metal-bodied resonator guitar, extending its timbral and harmonic range far outside the usual role in bluegrass and blues.
Lawler has performed solo in the US and Europe, and has worked with a wide range of diverse artists including Matmos, Pelt, Rhys Chatham, My Morning Jacket, John Butcher, Susan Alcorn, Tatsuya Nakatani , Helena Espvall, Lukas Ligeti, Ignaz Schick, Phillip Samartzis, Jack Wright, Tim Barnes and John Krausbauer. His sound art has been presented in Moma/PS1, Brooklyn, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, and in collaboration with artists Thaniel Ion Lee, Sandra Gibson, Valerie Sutherland Fuchs, and Russell Hulsey. He has shared stages with artists as diverse as John Fahey, Widespread Panic, Sudden Infant, Jim Carroll, and Vieux Farka Toure. He is presently performing solo, with various collaborators, and as a member of music collectives WET, Limited Hangout and Seismic Corruption Band.
John Krausbauer is a composer/multi-instrumentalist/improviser based in Oakland, CA and co-founder of the Los Angeles publishing label, Besom Presse.
A long time purveyor of the ur-drone and trance-psychedelia, his work involves audio transmissions for TOTAL/immersive sensory experience. Transcendence through repetition,
duration, alternate tunings, maximum volumes, and stroboscopic lighting.
He's performed and presented his music across N America, Europe, and Japan in a multitude of settings - from basements, sidewalks, and rock clubs to colleges, churches, and art museums. Over 20 recordings of his have been released on independent labels in the US, Europe, and Japan.
His group and solo music can be found on Important, Beta-Lactam Ring, ANTS, Fabrica, Debacle, Autumn, Thin Wrist (upcoming), and a number of other international labels.
His current music projects include the Ecstatic Music Band (a 10+ member-collective of strings players); solo music forvoice, violin, and synth; his collaboration with partner, Kaori Suzuki, with bells, voices, strings, tape; the Minimalist psych-punk group Night Collectors; his systems-based phase compositions; and ongoing duo collaborations with Kentuckian steel bodied resonator guitar player R. Keenan Lawler, NYC bagpipe player David Watson, and Tokyo based guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama.
credits
released September 13, 2019
R Keenan Lawler: National Steel resonator guitars
John Krausbauer: banjos
Recorded by Kaori Suzuki
Art by Stephen Stevens
Graphic design and executive production by Giovanni Antognozzi
ANTS (that stands for "A New Timeless Sound", but can also be related to the infatigable little insects) is an experimental
label based in Rome, Italy, operating from 2001. We promote Italian and international independent artists representing the fields of minimalism, sound art, electroacoustics, and more. ...more
supported by 13 fans who also own “Spectre of Radiants”
Absolutely love this recording. I listen to it at work. I listen to it in the car on the way home from work. I listen to it while falling asleep. Curtis’ cello is so amazing. Just got the vinyl in the mail from Discogs the other day! Can’t wait to play on my hi-fi system! Dave Sewall
Recorded inside a nuclear cooling tower, this 25-minute album is distinguished by innovative sound design and musical ingenuity. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 18, 2020
The 17 mindbending songs on this compilation represent minimalist experimental music at its best, a collage of blips and static. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 3, 2022