Eli Keszler And Ashley Paul

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

4...according to our Ant on Thu 20 Jan, 2011.

This is a recording of Ashley and Eli performing live in Boston back in 2009 and has them getting busy with some serious string scraping action, giving way to rich scratchy metallic textures and sustained tones. There are some notes about the instrumentation printed inside the sleeve but I'm not going to let reality destroy my imagination at this point in time as I visualize lots of little clockwork creatures and robots clattering and ticking away in some mad professor's workshop, awestruck as they come to life and start rioting, in turn creating hyper micro-rhythms! Then all of a sudden Arthur Doyle and Anthony Braxton drop by for lunch. One sided vinyl in the usual high-quality screened packaging with laser etched artwork in an edition of 135 copies.

Aster is the duo and debut LP release of Ashley Paul and Eli Keszler. Performing across the northeast the past 3 years they have developed a unique style of sound which combines Keszler's piercing high pitched resonances from bowed crotales and cymbals with Paul's altissimo sustains and drastic pitch bends on alto saxophone and clarinet. The split tone combinations from these instruments is surprising and overwhelming, creating continuously shifting, multi-layered harmonics and intense inner ear sound. Spinning discs, invented resonating metal configurations, bending reed tones and voice interference carefully blend creating a wild texture that is both harsh and striking . In contrast, the final piece displays Ashley’s wrenching string attacks and Eli’s rapid-fire percussion, filled with low-end bowed cymbals and jittery crashes. Recorded to 4 track with no sound modification, Aster is the first 'official' release of this long standing duo, which plans on a series of releases in the future.

Pressed on 160 gram copper plate pressed virgin vinyl, the record is housed in a black inner sleeve. The textured paper cover features a layered silk screened drawing while the inside contains grey pasted notes with an attached 8x24 inch three part multi-tone picture printed across a fold-out frosted vellum book. All silk screened, hand assembled and drawn by Ashley and Eli. The record comes in a limited hand numbered edition of 300 copies.

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