Search - Windy & Carl :: Dream House/Dedications to Flea

IGLOOMAG.com's Review by Mat Propek...

Pietro Da Sacco | 01/06/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"IGLOOMAG.com's Review by Mat Propek

(01.06.06) It has been five years since the evocative drone sounds of Windy & Carl have hung suspended at the outer edge of your hearing. Releasing their new material in a double CD set, Kranky offers two lengthy EPs that are connected by their themes of memory and loss as well as the eternal hum of captive drones which haunt their work. The Dream House circles about ideas of death, loss and dreams while Dedications to Flea (released last year in a limited run by Brainwashed.com) are memorial works to their recently passed dog, Flea. Both EPs offer the listener vast opportunities for psychic expansion as the drones and stretched tones resonate in your cranium.



The Dream House -- two tracks: the thirty-minute "The Eternal Struggle" and the twelve-minute "I Have Been Waiting to Hear Your Voice" -- contains sprawling affairs of limitless drones and slowing evolving guitar tones. The first six minutes of "The Eternal Struggle" alone barely exists as anything other than an amorphous chord. Eventually the guitar floats in as if it has been gently rocked back and forth by the tide for so long that it has lost all shape and edge, gliding up onto a blank shoreline like a flat sheen of oil. After eleven minutes the opening chord has drained away until it is just an echo in the background while the guitar is layering waves of sound, trailing harmonic overtones in its wake like the long fingers of ancient jellyfish. Built as an elegy to the losses we suffer in our lives, the lengthy introspection inspired by the piece lifts one's melancholy into a space of reconciliation and hopefulness. Buoyed by the endless waves of sound, you feel supported and raised up towards a luminous center. You feel like the struggle may not be futile or endless and that, in the end, we all see again those we love and have lost. "The Eternal Struggle" is a piece meant for letting go and realizing the echoes of our lives are always there.



The second part of The Dream House is the tribute to Windy's mother: "I Have Been Waiting To Hear Your Voice." While the pellucid tones color the background, an evocative melody is bent out of worn guitar strings. The melody chases a hint of counterpoint (flute-like in its resonance) like two fuzzy will o' wisps dancing across a field of blurred flowers. Resembling a filmscape left out of focus for stylistic reasons, this track pushes you to internal reflection where your memories are more vivid, more distinct and comforting than the empty reality. Like "The Eternal Struggle," we are blissed with memory which can be triggered by the barest hint of sound and, in which, waves of emotion are wordless and structureless. You just feel them swallow you up and keep you safe.



The second half is their tribute to Flea, their sweet dog who recently passed from old age. "Ode To A Dog" is filled with the hint of sound effects as if someone left the dog in the studio while they were recording these endlessly looping melodies and you can hear him snuffling around in the waste-bin and chewing on the cables. "Sketch For Flea" has a more overt reminder of the dog as it is filled with a field recording of a walk with the dog, listening to him breathe and pant and slobber as he trots along. The music which wafts in behind the dog noises seems almost superfluous to the recording of the favorite animal but, like "Ode To A Dog," there is always music in the air when you are with those you love, or even when you are dreaming about them."

Drifting meditations on life and death.

somethingexcellent | Lincoln, NE United States | 11/22/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Windy And Carl are one of those groups that I've managed to keep tabs on, despite not managing to review many of their releases on this site. In fact, the last (and only) album that I reviewed by them was their Portal full length, which is more or less their debut (a re-release of their early work). In the years since that time, the duo have refined their sound ever so slightly with each release, and when I heard that they were going to be putting out a limited EP earlier this year dedicated to their dog, I thought it would be a good time to re-discover them.



That release was their Dedications To Flea EP, which was the inaugural release in the Brainwashed handmade series, and hearing it made me glad that I decided to give them another chance. For those that didn't manage to pick up a copy of the limited EP, the group has included it along with The Dream House for a stunning double-dose of music. What you get with the release in total is four tracks and nearly eighty minutes of music split between two discs. The Dream House opens with "The Eternal Struggle," which mixes fuzzy, sustained keyboard chords with low, delayed guitar notes that seem to trickle down into all the right places. Running over thirty minutes, the track is all about slow evolution, but it's absolutely hypnotic, and sparse chimes and closing drone that finish the piece sound like the aural equivalent of clouds parting and letting the last few rays of sun through on a cold winter day.



"I Have Been Waiting To Hear Your Voice" combines more sustained, droning chords with ebow guitar and the result is another subtle piece that shifts in slight ways to slide inside your consciousness and make you feel that despite all the bad things going on, life might just go on. The aforementioned Dedications To Flea is slightly different in source sounds, but no less stunning, as the group mingles field recordings of their departed dog Flea with sparse, but completely lush, layered guitar playing. "Ode To A Dog" is downright uplifting, as overlapping tones dance and mingle with one another while "Sketch For Flea" seems to take a slightly darker turn, as if the entire life of the dog has been compressed into the two long tracks with the happy moments leading into the sad decline of health at the end.



Considering the duo hasn't released a full-length album for almost five years, this long release (split into two beautiful pieces) from Windy And Carl sounds like they haven't skipped a beat. Coupled with beautiful sleeve photography and detailed, heartfelt liner notes written by Windy herself, The Dream House definitely feels like more than just another ambient/drone piece without any thought put into it. If you haven't heard the group before and are interested, this might just be one of the best places to start.



(from almost cool music reviews)"

The sound of love

0=0 | Earth | 10/21/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I saw Windy and Carl perform live in a small venue in front of a small audience several years ago in Pittsburgh, PA. All I thought about (when I was still able to think) was how big and beautiful their sound was, coming from two guitars and effects pedals. Soon I was off in some other place, their music trasnporting me somewhere "beyond".



"Dream House/Dedication to Flea" is a nicely priced double disc collection of four long songs displaying what the duo do best--dive deep into the listener's subconscious like some kind of worm to the core of an apple, burrying it's blue-hued tone washes into the deepest depths of your brain.



The first Disc, "Dream House" is a sort of musical dedication to a deceased loved one, but it's in no way sad or depressing, but rather uplifting, with the additional use of ambient synth tones, akin to Eno's best atmospheric work. "Dedication to Flea" has a more straightforward, even organic feel to the guitars, and a rhythmic pacing is more obvious on this disc, perhaps mimicking the walking of the very dog this cd was recorded for. It's the more interesting of the two as well, mainly for the use of their deceased pooch's panting, slurping, and walking sounds--a different kind of field recording.



This is sentimental music without being sappy. It's a refreshing breath of sincerity to, in a world dominated by ironic and fake music. The extensive liner notes, eloquently written by Windy, and the wonderful photography are a fine compliment to the music on this great, lengthy release. I've got lots of Windy and Carl cds and am never disappointed by any of their stuff. This album fosters the lost art of listening--deep listening. If you enjoy expansive, sprawling ambient music made with lots of love then don't hesitate to track this down and support the fine people who bring you these sounds."