Barn Owl – The Conjurer

Barn Owl

The Conjurer

Catalog
RS044
Format
LP
Edition
Edition of 500
Released
May 2009
The Conjurer is the latest offering by Bay Area duo Barn Owl. This new long player finds Evan Caminiti & Jon Porras finally (by way of an actual recording studio) documenting something that is a bit closer to their very heavy live sets, with expanded peaks of white light distortion and enormous valleys of bottom end. Each side opens with a brief funeral dirge to set the mood, a procession of bare-bones drum beats and bell-like guitar statements that bridge the gap to the wider open spaces of the almost side long 'Across The Desert Of Ash' and 'Ancient Of Days'. It may seem obvious, or even a little overwrought, but it has to be said that these guys really do evoke all kinds of cinematic drama with their music. Apocalyptic westerns, bleak melodramas, mother nature fever dreams, it all seems to come to mind amid the evening guitar passages, incantations, flute tones, and finally, the solo piano that emerges lost among the electric mayhem to close the album. Considering the amount of terrain, The Conjurer is far from being scattered or rushed sounding. The record as a whole moves at a crafted even rhythm, slowly merging from one scene of violence to the next of almost silent recovery, then back up the mountain again. nEdition of 500 LPs, half colored deep red, half black. Cover etching by Evan Caminiti.

Tracklist

  1. Into The Red Horizon 5:11
  2. Across The Deserts Of Ash 16:59
  3. Procession Of Golden Bones 3:51
  4. Ancient Of Days 14:42

Press

"Don't be fooled by the Beatrix Potter-baiting band name, this San Francisco duo are cut from the same mold as arch doom-mongers Earth, purveying glacially paced gothic stoner rock that draws plenty of parallels with Dylan Carson and co. circa Hex. Throughout, there's the distinct feeling of a version of Americana gone wrong. Skeletal electric guitars intone with a tentative, death-knell twang at the beginnings of pieces before accumulating a more fully formed state of dread by the end. You can hear trace elements of the blues in 'Procession Of Golden Bones' and there's even a bit of acoustic, steel-strung guitar thrown in amongst the more gnarled and wizened sounds populating 'Ancient Of Days' - all this helps keep the album tethered to a sense of its rootsy, Western heritage. In their hybridisation of doom and dark ambient disciplines there are comparisons to be made with a band like Grails, who venture somewhat beyond the constraints of the customary sludge palette, and sure enough, Barn Owl manage to cram a diverse spread of instruments into their grim sonic dustbowl, frequently departing from the detuned six-string default of their genre in favour of more avant-garde, disorientating passages, as most effectively realised towards the hauntingly wispy close of 'Across the Deserts Of Ash' (which seems to be flecked with woodwind subcurrents of some ilk) or during the slow motion piano strains that bring the record to an unforeseeably orderly end, ultimately resolving the near-symphonic levels of deep-set, drone mesmerism that came before. Pressed on maroon vinyl and highly limited, this isn't one to sleep on..." - Boomkat