Harbor Lights Ragas

Description

Two Pere Ubu ex-alumni (playing processed baritone guitar and EML synthesiser) plus electronic music producer William Blakeney (electric sitar) and supplemented by various guests with exotic instruments (sarangi, duduk, rahab, flute, sitar and occasional assorted percussion) play compositions by both protagonists. Tony Maimone's pieces are mostly restful, meditative, rich and disciplined and marked by occasional electronic interpolations and precisely controlled dynamics. Alan Ravenstine's pieces shift away more from this baseline, though not too far, introducing more autonomous electronics and more western ambiguity. There are also some orchestra samples and field recordings. In all, highly atmospheric and not always obvious. Packaged in artwork designed to focus listening, it's an unusual project in these times. A twilight record, more mood inducing than mind engaging. ALLEN RAVENSTINE Best known for his work in the experimental rock group Pere Ubu, with whom he worked until 1988. He was also an occasional member of the British group the Red Krayola. After that he became an airline pilot for several decades, finally returning to music in 2013. He has also been published in the Penguin Book of Rock & Roll Writing. TONY MAIMONE Best known for his work in the experimental rock group Pere Ubu, with whom he worked until 1993 and his tour of duty with They Might be Giants from1992 to 1996. He owns and runs studio G Brooklyn, in New York. WILLAM BLAKELEY Canadian electronic music composer, labourer in the vinyard of the Electronic Music Foundation who has worked variously with Joel Chadabe, James Tenney, Iannis Xenakis, Luc Ferrari and others as well as on his own projects.