Califone & Robyn Mineko Williams and Artists Live Preview: 10/27, Audiotree
Earlier this year, beloved Chicago indie rockers Califone released Echo Mine, effectively a score to a dance piece by Robyn Mineko Williams inspired by and originally created with late dance Claire Bataille. While the original production was staged at the Harris Theater at the tail end of last year, the band and dancers haven’t gotten to perform the piece since the album saw widespread release, due to the pandemic. Tomorrow night, that’ll change. At 8 PM presented by Audiotree (with a portion of proceeds benefitting the Chicago Independent Venue League (CIVL)), Echo Mine v2 premieres. Like last time around, the lineup includes Califone (Tim Rutili, Brian Deck, and Ben Massarella), Williams, dancers Meredith Dincolo and Jacqueline Burnett, projection design by CandyStations (Deborah Johnson), lighting design by Eric Southern, and costume design by Hogan McLaughlin.
While a small amount of people first heard the music in context of the entire performance, having listened only to the album myself, it’ll be fascinating to see how it fits within a dance performance. Califone’s folky post-rock isn’t traditionally dancey, and that trend continues on Echo Mine, save for the hand percussion/drum machine-led “bandicoot”. In fact, their trademark drone hues and clattering percussion is on full display throughout the record. Opener “romans” focuses on Rutili’s quintessentially hushed vocals over an acoustic strum, delivering cosmically heady lines like, “Casino day drinkers all talk to God” before a twangy, shouted chorus of “Kill the algorithm!”
Inherent in Califone’s melancholy is not necessarily a sense of nostalgia but found reflection; on “night gallery / projector”, Rutili sings, “Somehow I lost you, Chicago / Somehow I never had you, L.A.” over dark guitar and bass riffs, processed noise, and steady percussion, mirroring the jagged edges of memory. Middle-album instrumentals “howard st & the beach nov 1988 after 11″ and “flawed gtr” offer a nice segue into the even noisier side of the album, as the title track presents motifs of drones and keyboards, squalling guitar, and shaky, tickling percussion. Though “snow angel v1″ and “snow angel v2″ are the most traditional rock songs on the record, and both appear towards the end, the lasting impressions of the album come from “carlton says: find it. it’s still there” and “by the time the starlight reaches our eyes”. On the former, freeform drums and synthesizers eventually fade to reveal recorded words of perspective from Bataille after her cancer diagnosis, becoming something uplifting. And the latter’s chaotic drums, thunderous, buzz saw guitars, frantic strings, church keys, and chanted vocal harmonies dissipate into an outro of layered strings, a stunning and mournful emotional climax.
In fact, what’s unique about Echo Mine within Califone’s discography is that while on previous releases, so much of the songs’ emotion came from the resigned, gravelly tones of Rutili’s voice and words, on their latest, they instead use the entire band and collaborators to full effect. One can only wonder how much more feeling and sensation you’ll get from seeing bodies move to it.
