About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

Chris Spencer of Unsane leads an experimental art noise project with German classical composer Ari Benjamin Meyers.



Pros

• Extremely detailed and punctuated for a two-week recording session.
• Booming loud like Unsane, brought to steam with fused electronics and orchestral supplementation.

Cons

• In many ways, this is strict head music; not all audiences will apply.

Description

• Released September 8, 2009 on Exile On Mainstream Records.

• Recorded at andereBaustelle Berlin by Rocco.
• Featuring Chris Spencer of Unsane, Ari Benjamin Meyers of Redux Orchestra/Einsturzende Nebauten.
• Also features Niko Wenner of Oxbow, plus Franz Xaver and Phil Roeder of flu.id.

Guide Review - Celan - 'Halo'

Legend has it Unsane’s Chris Spencer met Ari Benjamin Meyers of Redux Orchestra/Einsturzende Nebauten in a Berlin bar as the former was on a European tour. Born in the latter’s Deutschland, Celan is a merged exploration between American crunk and Euro avant guardism. That being said, the uncorked collaboration Halo is one of the more investigative albums you’ll hear in 2009.

Assisting in this alliance is guitarist Niko Wenner of Oxbow, as well as Franz Xaver and Phil Roeder of flu.id on drums and bass respectively. While Halo plays to the heavier side in Unsane’s favor, the incremental quietude composed by Meyers throughout the album splices its blaring dissonance.

Fusing keys, piano, samples and vibraphone on Halo, Meyers knows when to blare from his fingertips in response to the abrasive din expelled from the rest of Celan and in turn they allow Meyers to weave prolonged whispers until they’re called into action.

The artists’ mutual respect culminates in a volatile union on the extensive finale “Lunchbox” after minutes of reverential key swoons. “Lunchbox” becomes the exhilarating payoff of the entire enterprise, for audience and performers alike, as Meyers emotionally crushes his piano notes with the same adjunct exclamation as Celan’s projected string distortion.

Opening with a shivery industrial sequence “Safety Recall Notice” at home in a Front 242 jam, Halo strikes slow and steady with the harrowing puncher “A Thousand Charms.” It grinds meticulously on subsequent tracks such as “All This and Everything,” “One Minute” and “Weigh Tag,” growing intensely chaotic with “Train of Thought” and rhythmically thumped on “Wait and See.”

Some may require patience with this album, yet it’s amazing how unwearyingly outlined Halo is considering the short time Celan spent with each other recording this thing. Deadly intelligent…