"Negative Mass" Lurks In the Shadows of Mare Crisium's Cosmic Ambience (Early Album Stream)
The uncanny void of late January seems like a suitable time to return to the brooding, dazzling realms of outer space that Mare Crisium resides in. Through a combination of double bass and guitar/guitar synthesizer, the Chicago duo – Stephen Reichelt of Morgue Supplier and Erik Oldman of Sons of Ra – create incredibly lush ambient music that ranges from incredibly ominous swells to imagination-stirring twinkling oddness.
Negative Mass somehow offers even more range than Mare Crisium's self-titled debut did [read our interview here] -- both guitar and double bass veer further away from the sounds one usually associate with these instruments, and even on the last record that gulf was starkly apparent. This new album finds the duo plunging into sparser and stranger abysses that feel like they could almost have been conjured up from room-sized modular synths and strange homebrewed gadgets rather than a couple of stringed instruments. But, critically, Negative Mass does keep in touch with its acoustic-ish roots, and that grounding and articulation lends an unusual weightiness to the floating, perhaps even playful threads that Oldman and Reichelt weave.
We're streaming the record here before it releases on Friday -- whether your Wednesday calls for deep space oblivion or a soundtrack for intense focus, check it out. Also, if you're in Chicago, the band is playing a release show this Friday at Cary's Lounge -- more details follow below.
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Negative Mass releases February 2nd and will be available pay-what-you-want on Bandcamp.
The band will be playing a release show at Cary's Lounge (2251 W Devon Ave, Chicago IL) on Friday, February 2nd with Clay Condon and Keith Wakefield. Show starts at 8PM, 21+. No cover.
