Narrows CD

About this item

Some images just stick with you; images like Geist und Blutlache, a spare but spooky portrayal of a ghost staring at a pool of blood. Or is it simply a kid wearing a bone white sheet, standing over a crimson splashed slab of concrete? Whatever the case many be, Paul Duncan was so captivated by Katharina Fritsch's work that it helped inspire the name of his equally haunting avant-pop project, Warm Ghost. "I was about 11 when I first saw that image in a book my art teacher gave me", says the longtime singer/multi-instrumentalist (who has also delved into several solo albums and collaborations with such varied artists as Oren Ambarchi, Tortoise, Bear in Heaven and members of Grizzly Bear). 'I thought it was so simply and beautiful.' It is this duality that is one of the driving forces in Warm Ghost's debut album, Narrows. That means every pop element - from the comet-like chords of 'G.T.W.S.,' to the the climactic, synth-chased choruses of 'Myths On Rotting Ships' - is offset by an avant-garde one. Flourishes of field recordings and splintered blocks of beats and samples suggest a life of listening to Aphex Twin, Autechre and fringe icons like Fennesz, Cluster, and Chris & Cosey. 'It's all about making our music more challenging to the ear,' explains bandmate Oliver Chapoy. 'There is so much happening throughout the songs - little sound bursts, hypnotic rhythms - that helps maintain the balance between a typical electronic pop album and an experimental one.' Recorded with Abe Seiferth at the DFA studios in New York, Narrows perfectly captures Warm Ghost's heady synth-pop into nine all-encompassing tracks.

Description from Partisan Records.