| In November 2006, long-time friends and
musical accomplices Nick Franglen and Charles Casey came together
to create a new sound. Equipped with guitars and a phalanx
of effects pedals, their early experiments involved looping
guitar sounds to make music for a loosely planned ensemble
of multiple guitarists; however, like alchemists of old mixing
up unstable compounds they stumbled upon something altogether
different: a new improvised musical dialogue between the two
of them and the equipment that they manipulated and often
struggled to control.
The result of this new musical direction is a complex,
multi-layered sound that ranges from sparkling acoustica
to throbbing electronic maelstrom. While guitars are the
only instruments played, they don’t always sound like
guitars and are scraped, tapped, scratched and pinged to
provide sounds for an endless stream of effects that are
manipulated, looped and distorted into oblivion. Improvised
and unpredictable, no one performance can ever be repeated.
Blacksand tracks are recorded live with no overdubs.
An atmospheric performance in one of England's oldest sites
of Christian worship led to a new and exciting stage of
Blacksand's development: a search for unusual locations
in which to create their remarkable improvised music.
[
Nick ] [
Charles ]
|
