Barn Owl (US)

Nytt album 13 september: Lost in the Glare

Formed in 2006 by Jon Porras and Evan Caminiti, Barn Owl use their guitars to paint broad musical strokes on a canvas stretched between the framework of ambient, drone, americana, and black metal.

Lost in the Glare is Barn Owl’s second album for Thrill Jockey, and follows quickly on the heels of their acclaimed 12”

EP Shadowland. Like Shadowland the album was recorded to tape by Phil Manley in San Francisco’s Lucky Cat Studios.

Lost in the Glare is made up of material composed over the course of a year and recorded in sessions throughout

the winter of 2011. At the heart of the album’s sound is the dual guitar interaction between Caminiti and Porras, a

spiraling web of interlocking gestures that give way to bone rattling, monolithic progressions and dusty drifts. The

mostly finger picked guitars weave in and out of each other in precise movements that recall the hypnotic influence of

American minimalists.

The harmonium that was prevalent on previous recordings has been replaced on Lost in the Glare with the

undulations of a Farfisa organ. The songs here are deep, cosmic excursions. Rich in dynamics, the record possesses

a transcendental tone through both a densely layered combination of electric and acoustic instruments and walls

of melting amplifiers and feedback alchemy. The lines between strict structure and ordered chaos blur as third-eye

opening e-bowed drones explode like beams of light and corrode into crumbling distortion, baking tones that sizzle

like brittle bones left in the desert sun.

Between rhythmic, turning strums that recall Saharan twilight, radiant synth swells and choral clusters that echo the

desolation of deep space, the duo’s sound has no doubt ascended from it’s desert-rock roots into a new, beaming

realm. Evocative as they are, the sounds here aren’t easy to tie down to particular imagery. A myriad of influences

from blues and raga to the guitar style most often associated with the Tuareg people meld into a new universal sound

that can only be described as cosmic and sublime.

In addition to guitars and organ, Lost in the Glare features Juno 60, manipulated cassette tapes, tanpura and gong

played by Michael Elrod (The Alps, Date Palms), Steve Dye on bass clarinet (Portraits), and the crucial contribution

of drummer Jacob Felix Heule. Heule’s playing is paradoxically heavy and commanding, subtle and elegant. Morphing

from hypnotic processions to abstract ritualistic clatter and orchestral swells, his addition to Barn Owl takes the sound

to new heights.

Just returned from a month long tour of Europe with Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, San Francisco-based Barn Owl are gearing

up for some US dates in support of Lost in the Glare.

“Their latest siphon from the infinite abyss is a blackened earth opus to a dead land. In an age when most artists conjure

fleeting whims, Barn Owl carve epics out of ash.” – Raven Sings the Blues/Altered Zones

“Barn Owl take off into deep space and musically touch base with John Fahey, John Rose and Pandit Pran Nath, together with

a celestial symphonic orchestra and chorus” – The Wire

“a tonal constellation of electricity and wordless chorale” – Mojo (#6 on 2010 Underground Albums of the Year List)

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