200 Words: ERIC ARN
(In 200 Words, we highlight a new record we like a lot, via a 200-word review by Marc Masters and 200 words (or so) from the artist about whatever they choose.)
ERIC ARN - Orphic Resonance LP (Feeding Tube)
It’s pretty criminal that this is Eric Arn’s first solo vinyl release, and only (according to Discogs) his third solo record of any kind. After so many years of great playing with Crystallized Movements and the Primordial Undermind, you’d imagine he would have solo albums falling out of his pockets. But the blessing in disguise is that the scarcity means there has been no chance of wearing out ideas – if such a thing were even possible – and Arn packs a lot of them into Orphic Resonance, an album as comfortable with precise finger-picked acoustics as it is with big, daunting drones.
Those two modes work as a continuum rather than multiple personalities because Arn infuses every track with a sneaky combination of patience and disorientation. Everything on Orphic Resonance feels calm and measured, yet there’s always something subversive going on, a weird note or an odd timbre that pushes and pulls the music’s equilibrium. Even when Arn settles into a sunny strumfest to close the album out, there’s a sense of probing asymmetry, a sense that he’s not just gonna let time fly by passively. It makes Orphic Resonance a beautifully tense experience, even when it’s just beautiful.
– Marc Masters
ERIC ARN on Orphic Resonance
I hope that everything I had to say on this album is already there in the grooves, I would only add one suggestion - try listening in the dark. But I thought I might take the opportunity to get ahead of some questions that have already begun to crop up.
1. No, I didn’t forget the ‘m’. 2. Orpheus, man, Orpheus 3. It’s mostly guitars. At least a majority. ⅝ of the pieces (if you’re quantitative) are just guitars, even if it doesn’t seem like it. 4. No electronic effects or amplification at all in the recording - except for the piece that’s only amplified electronics 4. Because I do believe the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. 5. Whatever you’re hearing, you can assume it’s intentional. (rant/) There seems to be a trend these days in reviewing guitar music to use ‘clean’ as a complement. It isn’t so much in my estimation. In my struggles with the guitar, I tend to try and squeeze out every drop of sound I can wrench from the thing. Each extra overtone, difference tone, harmonic, buzz, rattle and squeak is a reward, from where I’m sitting.(/off) Someone once called me a ‘guitar wrestler’ in print (sorry, I can’t remember who). I try to embrace that. 6. From watching Genghis Blues and then just working out what I could on my own. 7. If you expected it to sound like John Fahey, then I’m afraid you didn’t read Byron’s blurb very carefully. 8. Yes, I would love a hug.
Orphic Resonance is out now on Feeding Tube. Buy it here.