As we mentioned last month, Barn Owl‘s Shadowland EP comes out today on Thrill Jockey, and the SF drone-rock band is already looking forward to their next full length. Lost In The Glare is out September 13th, and that news is accompanied by the cool cover artwork and anticipation-building label announcement that I’ve come to expect from these guys. Listen to Shadowland‘s title track above, and check out more about the new LP below.
Formed in 2006 by Jon Porras and Evan Caminiti, Barn Owl use their guitars to paint broad musical strokes on a canvas stretched between the framework of ambient, drone, americana, and black metal. Like Shadowland, the album was recorded to tape by Phil Manley in San Francisco’s Lucky Cat Studios. Lost in the Glare is made up of material composed over the course of a year and recorded in sessions throughout the winter of 2011. At the heart of the album’s sound is the dual guitar interaction between Caminiti and Porras, a spiraling web of interlocking gestures that give way to bone rattling, monolithic progressions and dusty drifts. The mostly finger picked guitars weave in and out of each other in precise movements that recall the hypnotic influence of American minimalists. The harmonium that was prevalent on previous recordings has been replaced on Lost in the Glare with the undulations of a Farfisa organ, and for the first time drums make an appearance, played by friend and album contributor Jacob Felix Heule. The songs here are deep, cosmic excursions. Rich in dynamics, the record possesses a transcendental tone through both a densely layered combination of electric and acoustic instruments and walls of melting amplifiers and feedback alchemy.
