Right now, the former Sonic Youth member who's in the public eye the most is Kim Gordon, and she'll release her new solo album Play Me next month. But Gordon's ex-husband and former bandmate Thurston Moore has a lot going on, too. Just a couple of weeks ago, he shared Guitar Explorations Of Cloud Formations, a collection of home recordings done specifically for a Dublin music festival. Today, Moore announces a new collaborative album with Bonner Kramer, the longtime Sonic Youth associate who was known as just plain Kramer for decades.
Thurston Moore and Bonner Kramer have both been in the same New York avant-garde circles since the early '80s. You might know Kramer for his time in bands like Bongwater, Shockabilly, and the Butthole Surfers, for running the Shimmy-Disc label, or for producing bands like Galaxie 500 and Low. He and Moore got together to make They Came Like Swallows - Seven Requiems For The Children Of Gaza, an improvisational instrumental record dedicated to the victims of Israel's campaign of genocide. Here's what Moore says about it:
Kramer and I reconnected in Miami, Florida a few years back, many, many years after each of us had departed NYC on separate life adventures. It was only a matter of time before we started making plans to record together and with his irrepressible due diligence, he quickly set up a mobile recording contraption in the pad I was decamped in, the Florida sunshine flowing through the palm leaves, lithe lizards skittering across the windowsills, and we just went for it. What transpired is They Came Like Swallows, a session we immediately felt should exist as a prayer to the war-torn souls of the families of Palestine continually decimated by the brutality of genocide. We agreed beyond words to offer our music as a sonic activism and as a beneficent energy. This album is our duo-exchange for human dignity, it is our soul music for any semblance of a peaceful planet.
And here's what Bonner Kramer says:
I had composed and recorded a few pieces at my home studio over the course of a couple weeks. Thurston was spending the winter in South Florida, so I flew down and spent a few days recording his guitar parts in his home there. Watching him spontaneously compose his parts was pretty astonishing, to say the least. Once we'd finished working on those pieces, we began improvising and following wherever the music pointed us, and another few pieces were born. We got straight to it, without anything driving us other than the joy of finally working together. My personal goal was to remain present and catch as many surprises as I could from Thurston's guitar work, and there were plenty during those few days. We had a blast.
Lead single "Urn Burial" is a twisty psychedelic freakout; listen below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Urn Burial"
02 "The Redness In The West"
03 "The Third Migration"
04 "They Came Like Swallows"
05 "The Living Theater"
06 "The Oceans Are Crying"
07 "Insight"
They Came Like Swallows - Seven Requiems For The Children Of Gaza is out 5/1 on Silver Currents.
