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LP
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OF 004LP
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Chris Ryan Williams (trumpet and electronics) and Lester St. Louis (cello and electronics) work together as HxH (H by H). Their skills have seen them move smoothly across various situations, constantly carving out new terrain and working in new configurations of musicians at a rapid pace. While worth reading, their biographies capture only a part of their complex rhizome. The project is a direct response to all their activity with others and more importantly all their future leaning sonic desires. Their debut album Stark Phenomena is both their first studio recording and their first physical release. The album released by KMRU on his growing label OFNOT. It's an ideal introduction to their sound world and their approach. HxH describe their music as "electroacoustic," but until recently the presence of Black musicians in this field has been greatly overlooked and largely ignored, making this phrase only partially appropriate. What HxH do really is to always be unpredictable. Chris and Lester bring together techniques from across the sound spectrum of electronic music and also draw on their deep backgrounds in jazz, improvisation, classical and noise scenes to create a sound that is true to them. After all, these two have worked with the likes of Bennie Maupin and the music of Black Fluxus artist Ben Patterson. Their rhizome is deep. One of the ways that their unique approach manifests is in their merging of both acoustic instruments and electronic instruments in real time. This is something few have managed to do -- but their spontaneous leanings work in both complex and accessible ways because of their deep understanding of landscape crafting. Their approach makes it tempting to compare their music to Sun Ra jamming with Laurel Halo -- a comparison that would be only partly accurate. KMRU notes: "I think there is an in-between layer on this record. I was first caught by the 'Pyrex Vision' track which organically flows between monologue, subtle field recording, and instrumentation. It's such a beautiful track, evoking deep emotion through simplicity. Stark Phenomena effortlessly glides in between imaginative mosaics of sounds -- free yet complex -- unlocking memories within its layers."
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