Windy & Carl Meet Optigan Conservatory, new LP on Kranky

Windy & Carl team up with Optigan Conservatory for a new LP on Kranky. Drone ambient with optical organ textures — available now from Norman Records.

Michigan drone ambient duo Windy & Carl have a new LP out on Kranky, made in collaboration with fellow Michigan duo Optigan Conservatory. If you know Windy & Carl’s work, the long guitar drones, the glacial pacing, the way their records seem to suspend time rather than move through it, you have a reasonable sense of the sonic territory here. The addition of Optigan Conservatory’s optical organ textures shifts the character of the record in ways that feel genuinely unexpected rather than cosmetic.

There’s a stranger, more dislocated quality to this one compared to earlier Windy & Carl records. The optical organ is an instrument with its own inherent oddness, pre-recorded sounds played back through a light-based mechanism, and the way it sits against the guitar drones gives the record a slightly uncanny atmosphere that suits both acts well.

Out now on LP via Kranky. Available from Norman Records — a straightforward recommendation for anyone who follows either act or wants a serious ambient record to sit with this month.

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