hose familiar with the Wholly Other label would most likely only have stumbled upon it because of Charalambides, the former Siltbreeze group (now signed to Kranky) who run the label and make up the bulk of the catalog. They've created quite a body of work and won over the Terrastock crowd with minimalist and hypnotic guitars, lap and pedal steels, and the amazing vocals of Christina Carter.


Here Christina and good friend (now also a Charalambides member) Heather Murray take the Charalambides aesthetic another step further; using only chord organs, their voices, and some bells. Since the real beauty of Charalambides lays in the more atmospheric playing and the amazing vocals, the emphasis of these particular aspects (and the absence of the snake charmer guitar that can border on out-right wankery) help take this record a step beyond that of the already impressive Wholly Other catalog.


The disc's two tracks make great use of organ. Each is around a half hour: one song beautiful, the other haunted. The notes and tones are familiar. If played on guitar instead of organ, it isn't inconceivable that these could be Charalambides tracks, but their presentation pulls them quite a ways out of that context. Sans plucking and strumming everything is a tone - the only exception being the occasional bells. Both women seem to posses an unearthly sense of pitch, and here even more than on the Charalambides albums their voices coincide perfectly with their instruments.


Often on the first track, "Holding," a voice will be present for quite a while before it even registers that it's not another note from the organ. This is music to get lost in. Fans of Kranky should definitely take note, especially, because this album drones successfully without being distant. Not to say that their droning contemporaries necessarily are, but Scorces fulfill this challenge to show so much emotion with so little.


Many times I feel emotions within, but I am not sure that they are necessarily what the artist was feeling. At no point here can that be questioned, though. The intensity of the tracks here is easily matched if not overpowered by amazing levels of sentiment.