Outdoor Spell

Rhys Chatham has trail-blazed a course through late 20th century music, equally aplomb in post-minimalist composition as he is in punk. Not since Roebling laid his span across the East River has there been an artist who builds bridges in both how we hear music and how we can appreciate art. His latest album, Outdoor Spell, is a further document in that direction. Here has has eschewed 100 guitars, or even himself playing a single guitar, for the trumpet and voice, both electrified and dry. It is an Earthquake Island for the 21st century, tugging at the corners of new ideas, taking in forms endemic to a shared imagination and renewing the beauty there.

The avant-garde guitar legend-- best known for crafting pieces for overpowering groups of musicians-- makes his Northern-Spy Records debut.

Avant-garde composer Rhys Chatham takes a highly percussive approach on the four tracks of his album Outdoor Spell, starting with the title track, which re-creates a sound similar to that of Tibetan monks throat singing.