The Quickening

Making their debut as a duo are guitarist Marisa Anderson and drummer Jim White, two distinctive instrumentalists whose collective discography spans numerous interesting projects across the folk, indie rock, and avant-garde spectrum. Based in Portland, Oregon, Anderson has built up an intriguing catalog of work ranging from the improvisatory Evolutionary Jass Band and country-folk outfit the Dolly Ranchers to her own eclectic solo guitar albums that meld facets of American traditional styles with minimalism, drone, and electronic music. A New York-dwelling Australian expat, White made his name in the early 90s with beloved Melbourne post-rock trio Dirty Three before establishing himself as a go-to collaborator for eclectic thinkers like Will Oldham, Nick Cave, Smog, and Nina Nastasia. Both players are known sonic adventurers with organic palettes and very intuitive approaches that prove to be complimentary on The Quickening, their first album for Thrill Jockey. Recorded between Portland and Mexico City, the ten instrumental pieces here were entirely improvised in the studio with no advance rehearsals or performances. Built more on expression than outright grooves or repeated motifs, the songs tend to roll and swell in arrhythmic peaks and valleys. Fingerpicking an overdriven electric guitar like a stuttering engine, Anderson propels Whites spidery frenzy of brushes on The Other Christmas Song, a strange but enchanting highlight. Her lonesome classical guitar voicings on The Lucky are dryly punctuated by an insistent barrage of snare and tom rolls, a theme they later repeat with more intensity on the title track. As a meeting of minds, Anderson and White are a well-matched duo with a similar creative aesthetic. Thats not to say The Quickening is an easy listen. Melodies and recognizable rhythms are hard to come by, and those that do present themselves are rather spare and subtle. The quiet and gently unfolding 18 to 1 stands as the albums prettiest and most tonally pleasing cut, though for the patient listener, there is plenty of magic throughout the set as these two masters intertwine their ample talents. ~ Timothy Monger