Double Celled Organism | Strum and Drone
(Oystertones Records)
A few months ago, I went to see Nine Inch Nails guitarist Alessandro Cortini perform an improvised concert of electronic music at the Egg in Albany. Videos were projected, but the artist was left mostly in the dark. In nearly 50 years of concert going, it was the first time I felt completely comfortable closing my eyes while someone worked onstage. I feel the same way with Strum and Drone, a massive, two-disc effort from Double Celled Organism, the Hudson Valley duo of Bill Brovold and Richard Carr. I feel more in service to the music shutting off my other senses and diving deep into the ambience of the sound. Some inorganic blips blossom on “Bloom Jam,” but essentially this is acoustic Brian Eno. Overall, Strum is just as challenging, hypnotic, and human as Kohachiro Miyata’s masterful work on the 1977 Nonesuch Records LP Shakuhachi: The Japanese Flute. Obscure, yes, but, trust me, that’s a compliment.
This article appears in March 2025.
