1972 COUNTDOWN… #45 — #41

1972 COUNTDOWN… #45 — #41

45  TULLY — SEA OF JOY

Australia and beaches seem to go together. Probably something to do with being an island continent. With endless coast and hot summers come beach culture, including the beguiling but not-so-easy-to-master sport of surfing (read about the writer’s efforts here). In the early 1970s a number of iconic surfing films were made, all needing appropriate contemporary soundtracks.…

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I am excited to dive again into the sonic world of Aural Canyon, and my focus this time around is on the Palo Santo tape recently released by Remember Ecstatic Duo. The project is comprised of Kristine Reaume and Michael Sharp, the former a highly skilled flautist and botanical healer, the latter a far-ranging explorer of experimental and aggressive music who, in his solo work, delves deep into kosmische, space rock, acid folk, and drone. As well, both members are great friends of mine, and as much as I dislike using this blog for any sort of self promotion—preferring instead to foreground all the amazing art that inspires and sustains me—I see no way around mentioning Sungod, a psychedelic sound collective whose central core is comprised of Reaume, Sharp, and myself (along with a gifted multi-instrumentalist named Nick Lombard). Across Sungod’s existence, we have touched on new age music, spiritual ambient, minimalism, and strains of Berlin School from the late 70s and early 80s, and it’s from these same wells that Remember Ecstatic Duo draw their inspiration. However, their work is not some mere extension or side project of Sungod, and is instead a fully formed and separate entity that, in addition to the aforementioned aesthetic influences, draws on a deep sense of connection between Reaume and Sharp, stemming from their marriage, and from their parenting of a wondrous child. Indeed, as Sharp himself puts it, “[Palo Santo] represents a journey through how our love has blossomed, and how our focus on each other has enhanced and grown with our family.” What results then is a mesmeric collection of meditative sound sourced from two interconnected spirits, wherein Sharp’s polysynths generate droning dreamscapes, sequential starscapes, breathing blankets of metallic shimmer, and infinite expanses of underwater incantation while Reaume’s flutes dazzle and dance through tape echo oceans and cosmic corridors of reverberation…sometimes executing melodic progressions of romantic wonderment and magical fantasy, other times devolving into pure atmospheric experimentation.  

Remember Ecstatic Duo - Palo Santo (Aural Canyon, 2021)
The album opens with “Estuary” and its primordial invocation of resonance and feedback. Glimmers and shimmers move in the distance and through the layers of pure harmonic motion, Reaume’s flute enters…like an emerging dawn teasing out tendrils of sunlight. Spiritual note cascades decay from infinite mountain tops and a synth sequence percolates in slow motion through the background, with a vibe less kosmische, and more so oriented towards the mystical minimalism of Terry Riley, Don Cherry and Bitchin Bajas. Reaume continues flowing and glowing overhead, her long billowing blows producing celestial sound threads that wrap around each other, while her pauses leave space for otherworldly pads and sequencer patterns to merge in totality. As everything continues to melt through banks of reverb and delay, further sequential structures enter the stereo field, producing blinding displays of solar vibration that grow increasingly intense and subsuming. At some point, the minimalist bass sequences slowly disappear in a sea of echo as the flute transforms into gaseous ether, and eventually, all that remains are insectoid sparkles moving at hyerspeed through a sea of tonal drone. “Blindfolds” flows seamlessly out of “Estuary” and sees synthesizer drones taking on a metallic edge…these cold and spectral mirages that move around the periphery. Slow motions oscillations zoom back and forth, looping cycles are disturbed by delay pedal manipulations, and searing screams of fuzz intertwine with abstracted layers of woodwind experimentation, with the whole thing cutting the difference between early Pelt and later Natural Snow Buildings. Resonances grow in strength and sub bass clouds bloom then decay, causing the soul to vibrate at mysterious frequencies. And as disturbing currents of sound spiral towards an unseen center, filtered fogs of feedback hover in place while changing constantly in pitch and timbre.

The A-side concludes with “Stratospheric Clouds,” wherein phaser-blasted chord drones swim around the spectrum. A gentle and child-like sequence enters alongside trilling flute melodies, with a vibe evoking a meditative meadow, over which the titular clouds drift and dance. Reaume’s flute hooks are so peaceful and joyous as they ride a naïve kosmische bounce through wavering cascades of galactic keyboard magic, and in the distance, electronics evoke dripping crystal liquids. Further saw-wave sequential harmonizations join in and Reaume continues her sprightly springtide dance high above, the result a synthesizer and woodwind soundbath perfect for scoring listless days spent in flower fields…lying on your back, eyes closed, feeling the warmth of the sun and the vibrant energy of the natural world all around. At some point, the sequences begin drifting away, leaving space for melancholic chords to decay through echo, with sounds progressively disturbed by garbled fluids. As well, the flute grows ever more abstract as the layers of delay and reverb increase in presence, resulting in granular wavefronts sourced from breath and sibilance. “Lachrymose” opens side B with squarewave tones decaying through a feathery bed of echo as they generate vibes of ocean floor entrancement. Decaying notes pool together into slowly moving vortices of cerulean sound and Reaume’s flute blows low and far away, sometimes blending completely with Sharp’s aqueous atmospherics, while at other times spreading outwards into flows of melodic melancholy. The mix progressively thickens while growing more intense, and multiple flute layers seem to emerge from nowhere as they blow over and around each other, creating waves of harmonic dissonance in the process. A strange sequencer bounce is discernible beneath it all—constructed from subearthen rumbles and tectonic flutters—and as Reaume continues letting lose fantasy incantations beneath melting streaks of galactic glass and laser-light feedback arcs, her playing is dark, warm, and slightly overblown.

A baked Berlin school sequence seeps into the stereo field in closing track “The Permeable Nature of Things,” and blurred chimes float towards the heavens, carrying with them airy wisps of woodwind. Reaume’s wondrous melodies paint the air in understated hues, with attack and presence sanded away to leave a warming cloud of new age tonality. D50 bell tones join the futuristic fairy dance as it gather strength, and twinkles of starlight add further motion and magic to the mix. Another sequence soon fades in—both accenting the foundational synth pattern and giving the track a sense of propulsive motion—and what results is a classic kosmische starscape in the late 70s mold…the kind of thing you’d hear in the early days of Innovative Communication and specifically, on the first few albums from Software. Arpeggiated patterns race around each other…their effect like seafloor gems sparkling in the ocean-filtered sunlight…and a gradual give and take between flute and keys emerges, with the flute at times taking lead and spiraling towards sky, while other times backing into an muted purr as chiming tones dance with reckless abandon. Another woodwind soon enters the scene, so that in one ear flows high-pitched fairy melodies sourced by a standard flute, and in the other, sensual drone breaths provided by an alto. A semblance of percussions works into the stereo field, with tambourines jangling side-to-side and tom and snare hits ricocheting off the walls of the mix…the merging of primitive kraut rhythmics and dazzling sequential constructions calling to mind mid-70s Klaus Schulze. The mix seems to wash out periodically, with elements drifting from each other in time until the rhythmic pulse is lost entirely. And once drums and sequences fade away entirely, what remains is a glorious expanse of aerophone enchantment, wherein Reaume blurs the line between organic and electronic as her intertwining and heavily effected alto and standard flute melodies morph into synthesizer-esque soundtrails. Eventually, a looping keyboard phrase fades in to re-establish a barely-there flow, and as the track comes to a close, the duo’s immersive fantasy landscape is washed out by blooming feedback resonances and wisps of phaser.

(images from my personal copy)