Last Sunday at the Rotunda, the ghosts were out — and they were playing with distortion pedals and tape machines. The show was booked by the ever-intrepid Bowerbird group and featured Weyes Bluhd, Nmpergin and a Graham Lambkin/Jason Lescalleet duo. The tone ranged from hymnal melodics to metallic minimalism to apocalyptic reverberation.
Weyes Bluhd (Natalie Mering) opened the saturnalia with an exquisitely moody set, performed behind an organ, surrounded by her tape machines and pedals. Weyes Bluhd’s sound has evolved from folk to noise, and her set reflected a meeting of the two forms, as she sang over a web of loops and organ chords. Her voice, always hypnotizing in a folksong, took on a mythic quality against the dreamy, church-like chords. The tape collage created a naturalistic cacophony, as samples of birdsong and crickets competed for attention with the molasses of Mering’s voice.
Nmperign (Bhob Rainey and Greg Kelley) followed Mering in a fierce, whispered horn duet. The two improvisers forged a radical departure from Weyes Bluhd’s narcotic luxury, with an exacting, delicate minimalism. Rainey maintained agonizing control over his soprano sax, while Kelley whispered and growled through his trumpet. The audience sat for the most part in rapt silence, many with their eyes shut, leaning in to catch the metallic murmurs.
The Graham Lambkin and Jason Lescalleet duo closed the show with an epic set. With an artillery of laptops, microphones, tape recorders, and soundboards, these two men brought about the apocalypse in a thunderous, dramatic roar. Over the course of an hour, they performed their piece The Breadwinner, a mash of endless low-fi material. Lambkin’s cult status as front man of the iconic band The Shadow Ring was subtly apparent in his deadpan performance (he frequently walked backstage to provide vocals, or stood for several minutes sipping a beverage and watching Lescalleet play.) The texture of the piece incorporated deafening volumes which rattled the ribcage, as well as romantic excursions into choral harmonies. As the performance shuddered and rumbled to a close, there was a collective exhalation of breath from the audience, as if a storm had passed.
