Hoffman Estates
Alan Licht and Loren Mazzacane-Connors's previous releases have drawn from the guitarists' improvisational performances, but on the sublimeHoffman Estatesthey abandoned both live recording and the duo format. Instead the two New Yorkers traveled to a studio in suburban Hoffman Estates, Illinois, where jack-of-all-trades Jim O'Rourke (Gastr Del Sol, Tony Conrad, Faust, Smog) recorded each guitarist's encounter with the cream of Chicago's musical underground. Then O'Rourke, in conscious emulation of producer Teo Macero's role on Miles Davis'sIn a Silent WayandGet Up with It, assembled the album's tracks by doubling, looping, and adding to the original performances. On "Wisdom Day" a cascade of brass fanfares pours over Licht's richly textured feedback drones; Connors's weeping, tremolo-laden guitar leads stalk through the aptly titled "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly" shadowed by a deliberate acoustic bass before dissolving into a cascade of dolorous clarinets.--Bill Meyer