.jpg "070720_cellars1-Main1")
SOUNDSCAPES: Erik Carlson’s latest CD amounts to a live recording of dueling Farfisa organs. |
The warm, multi-layered drones of Area C are so lush and richly detailed, you could be forgiven for thinking they must be the work of multiple musicians. Yes, there are occasional guests and collaborators, but Area C is in essence Providence guitarist Erik Carlson, who conjures luminous music from an intricate system of loops, delays, and effects.
At P.A.’s Lounge in Somerville a week ago Monday, Carlson began his set with a simple, extended guitar line, which then began to loop and shift. Every gesture — no matter how small — added new layers of complexity, as he created a mesmerizing, enveloping drone. He was joined on stage by Eyes Like Saucers’ Jeffrey Knoch on organ and harmonium, and as the set progressed, the music grew louder and more intense, swirling keyboards mingling with extended, drifting guitar lines. Once Knoch’s harmonium — a free-standing old-time reed organ whose evocative accordion-like sound has been adopted recently by Sufjan Stevens and Aphex Twin, to name two — was deployed, the effect was overpowering. Several members of the audience showed their appreciation by lying down on P.A.’s less-than-pristine floor and closing their eyes in bliss.
Carlson is currently on tour with Eyes Like Saucers to promote the release of Area C’s new Haunt, which is just out on the Last Visible Dog label. It’s not a radical shift in style, but Haunt is grittier and more abrasive than Area C’s previous recordings. Last year’s Traffics + Discoveries was a quiet tour de force of shimmering soundscapes, the result of countless solitary hours sweating the tiniest details in a basement studio. The rawer Haunt is largely the product of live improvisation. After touring with each other last year, Carlson and Knoch decided to get together to improvise on a pair of Farfisas — an electronic organ with a distinctive, reverb-laden sound, made famous by early psych bands like Iron Butterfly and early Pink Floyd.
As Carlson recalls over the phone from Providence, “Having done a bunch of shows together, I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we did a record with us just playing two Farfisas?’ We’d never done that live because I have enough gear that I bring with me as it is, so I didn’t want to tote an organ along, too. But that’s how it started. And, of course, I couldn’t resist picking up the guitar and playing a little bit, but it was very spontaneous and improvisational.”
The album captures the somnambulant pleasure of Area C’s live sets, particularly on the swirling, two-part “Circle Attractor,” which closes the disc. The six trance-like pieces were wrought from the dueling Farfisa sessions Carlson describes. Only once did he add an additional guitar after the fact — long, extended tones that ebb and flow almost imperceptibly below the surface. “Other than that, surprisingly, it’s almost all live improvisation. When I was mixing it, I was simply able to bring out some details.”
Prior to Area C, Carlson played guitar in Purple Ivy Shadows, an indie-rock shoegazer quartet who toyed with avant atmospherics before, over time, their experimental edge softened and they embraced a more tradition rock/pop æsthetic. When Carlson parted ways with the band in 2002, he went in the opposite direction, exploring more-abstract approaches to guitar until the idea for Area C coalesced. “I think I came upon it from just trying to make the guitar sound different. It comes back to my trying to free the guitar from the rhythmic way I’d been playing for quite a while. One of the places it led me was to drone-based music and using more delays to extend notes.”
It was important to Carlson, after so many years as part of a band, to develop these new ways of playing on his own. “The textures of sound and the relationship of different cycles and loops have always fascinated me, so Area C started as a means to explore those interests. I wanted to work alone. It became what it is out of me trying to make sounds using the guitar that I hadn’t been able to do before. Guitar is my main instrument, but my sonic interests are a lot broader than traditional guitar music.”
His sonic activities have broadened beyond performing and recording — as Area C, Carlson, who trained as an architect, also does sound and multimedia installations. One of his most recent projects was as sound designer for an interactive public art piece in DC called “Lo Rez/Hi Fi.” Designed by architect J. Meejin Yoon of Cambridge’s MYStudio, this sidewalk installation combines sound and light into an interactive “soundgrove” with music scored by Area C.
Closer to home, Carlson is collaborating on a multimedia project that will fill some of Providence’s vacant lots with large-scale projections and an Area C soundtrack. It’s a chance to work with other artists and musicians in that city’s vibrant cultural scene, which though best known for its high-voltage noise shows also embraces his contemplative æsthetic. “The small size of the city and the level of artistic and musical activity means that things do intermix quite a bit,” he explains. “People go out to hear what other people are doing and are inspired and challenged to do something different, or to push what they’re doing a little bit farther. I know that’s always been important to me, because it inspires me to improve what I’m doing.”
Haunt is available at www.lastvisibledog.com, and through the Area C Web site, www.areacmusic.com.
