Ethereal (FR)

(translated from French)

Discovered a little less than a year ago, thanks to his first album (already released on 12k under the short name of M. Grig), Michael Grigoni is already coming back, but for a long format duet, alongside of one of his musicians very accustomed to collaborative work that is Stephen Vitiello . Indeed, the interested party has already been able to operate alongside Lawrence English, Taylor Deupree, Molly Berg, Machinefabriek and Mem1 (to stick to the records listed on these pages). In the continuity of Mount Carmel , Grigoni finds his different guitars, while Vitiello takes care of the electronic part, the accompaniment and the processing of the six-strings.

Thanks to this meeting, we will not be surprised that Michael Grigoni’s guitars show less direct sound, less raw and less acoustic behavior, benefiting from the coating of Stephen Vitiello. Also allowing it to accentuate the brighter colorations of its notes, to also stretch the interventions of dobro or pedal steel , these contributions therefore intelligently underline the characteristics of Grigoni’s instruments. But the cooperation between the two Americans is fortunately not just an enhancement of the solo album of the latter since it can also lead him to go to new horizons, like the end of Purpling Cloud, with its repeated and very iridescent arpeggios, between psyche-folk and a somewhat shamanic trance.

Stylistically, in addition to these more singular moments, the rest of the disc is envisioned as a beautiful rambling, like a soundtrack of a trip in a new americana or a slow, somewhat sophisticated lullaby. If some duet works, bringing together musicians operating solo alongside, are sometimes just the simple coexistence of faculties, Slow Machines is therefore, on the contrary, a nice addition of talents, as if the two speakers had makes each other the short ladder to reach a peak.