Description:	Digipak CD on Baskaru
	Format:	CD
	Genre(s):	Folk/Folk Rock
	Label:	Baskaru
	Price:	£8.89
	Availability:	In stock. Dispatched in 1 working day.

5
...according to our Phil on 01 April 2010.

This has been on for about 5 minutes and I'm already falling for it! I've not heard Laura Gibson before but her voice is just melting over some beautiful drones and weird electronic soundscapes created by Ethan Rose (who released a top album on locust a couple of years back). He's apparently a Electronician...I don't know what one of those is but I want one. To quote from the press release 'Ethan Rose is vested in antiquated instruments and technologies - a sonic recycle who, out of the old, has been creating a new form of ambient music'. So imagine that smothered in some beautiful vocals.... It's not all weirdy beardy as well.... it's pretty songs with piano and trumpets popping up as well over this new ambience. The vocals are high in the mix so when Laura sings you take notice, the whole thing is amazingly recorded! I'm gonna go and spend a bit more time with this album cos it sounds truly amazing on first listen! The european edition (what we have) comes with a bonus track in a 6 fold digipack. Awesome!

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Sound clips for Bridge Carols by Laura Gibson And Ethan Rose: on CD at Norman Records UK. CD, Baskaru, KARU:17, £8.89.

What their label says...

"Bridge Carols" is the meeting of two artists with unique timeless approaches to music. Neo-Americana folk singer Laura Gibson is gifted with a soft and singular voice (not unlike the voices of Josephine Foster and Joanna Newsom) and writes songs that could date back a century or foretell a future rural life. Electronician Ethan Rose is vested in antiquated instruments and technologies - a sonic recycler who, out of the old, has been creating a new form of ambient music.

Both are from Portland, Oregon, USA. Their collaboration started with ambient backgrounds and Gibson vocalizing around unused bits of verses from her notebooks. Around these quasi-melodies, Rose has woven ambiences using acoustic sounds (mostly strings, but also piano and bells) and very light electronic textures. Then, Gibson redeveloped her vocalizations to fully inhabit that shared space. Finally, Rose recombined her interventions into new poems. This process has resulted in a CD of insidiously beautiful electro-pastoral music entitled "Bridge Carols".

Critics have lauded Laura Gibson's latest release "Beast of Seasons" ("a quiet masterpiece" - NPR). Accompanying herself on nylon-strung guitar, the singer leaves few hearts unmoved, and her vocal style belongs to no specific tradition, except maybe the one that calls for searching inside one's self for the means of communicating with one's external world.

For the past decade, Ethan Rose has been releasing records, composing film music, performing around the world, creating sound installations, and collaborating with numerous artists. In 2009, he released the album "Oaks", a tribute to an old theatre organ, on Baskaru.

"Bridge Carols" is being co-released by Baskaru in Europe, Holocene in the US, and Headz in Japan. The six-page digipak design and bonus track are exclusive to the Baskaru edition.