Outer Sounds 004 - February 2021

The selection for February 2021 is Ashley Bellouin & Ben Bracken’s String Songs LP on Debacle Records. Ashley Bellouin & Ben Bracken have been quietly making music for many years in the Bay Area (Ben has played with bands such as Saturday Looks Good To Me, Flashpapr & Date Palms as well as improvising with many notable musicians). Most of their work life (Dave Smith Instruments / Buchla / Cycling74) & music life has been in the realm of electronic music using synths & computers but the seed of String Songs began when Ashley & Ben worked under the tutelage of Daniel Schmidt at the Paul Dresher Ensemble Artist Residency Center in 2012. There they were able to get away from the electronic world a bit and focus on acoustic instrument building, specifically a monochord multi-string aeolian harp type of stringed instrument. After many trials, tribulations and prototypes they developed a pair of five foot long instruments each with 35 strings, 11 of which are strung on a “javari” bridge that produce a buzzing tone like the tambura which is heard as the basis of Indian classical music. For several years, these instruments were mostly used for long form live performance & sound installations (including an early performance with Sarah Davachi, who wrote some liner notes for the album, and Tashi Wada). The live performances allowed them to experiment & amass many different techniques for playing the instruments which include plucking, bowing (with rosin strings a la Stephen Scott or John Cage), using ebows, hammering, strumming, etc. After about 7 years of performing with the instruments and refining their techniques, they made this album. It starts with the spacious & clear drone piece, Sung Strings, which utilizes ebows & their various positions & placement along the strings of the instruments. Strummed Strings is a bit more “traditional” sounding with piano chords, plucked strings & synth arpeggios bringing to mind the music of Giusto Pio, Popol Vuh and JD Emmanuel. The sidelong track, Strung Strings, is an immersive buzzing drone piece utilizing a special bowing technique & various tunings in the zone of Ellen Fullman’s resonant & harmonically rich overtone music. And there are still some subtle synths & electronics embedded into these pieces as well. All in all, Ashley & Ben created a beautiful, personal, concise & deep record that reveals the years of work they put into making & playing these unique homemade instruments. Check out our conversation with Ashley Bellouin & Ben Bracken below about this album & more!