Album: REDHOOKER – Vespers (Soft Landing 2010)

Redhooker is a Brooklyn based chamber quartet / quintet led by Slow Six’s guitarist Stephen Griesgraber. Also on board are current and former Slow Six violinists Ben Lively and Maxim Moston, plus third violinist Andie Springer and bass clarinetist Peter Hess. Since their last mini LP, 2007’s The Future According to Yesterday, the ensemble’s sound has changed with the loss of Rob Collins’ electric piano. This leaves the guitar and bass clarinet to provide much of the rhythmic structure while the violins provide most of the melodic colour.

The six tracks that make up Vespers include four composed pieces and two lengthy improvisations. The former are generally reflective chamber pieces, although “Friction” has a sprightly air about it and “Trip and Fall” builds from something melancholy into something full-blooded and joyful..

The improvised tracks have a completely different character, with drone and space as their foundation. “Presence and Reflection” is like a dust cloud of sound that gradually coalesces and gains form and structure with a simple guitar progression emerging more than half way through that has a melody the others eventually follow and work around. It’s a beautifully constructed and paced piece. “Black Light Poster Child” creaks and sighs like the hull of a galleon, before drifting into a narcotic drone-piece over which micro-melodies rise and fall. And then it gradually dissolves away into the void.

The composed pieces are delightful and full of charm, especially the closing track, but for me it’s the two longform works that make Vespers essential listening.

Tracks
1 . Standing Still 5:48
2 . Bedside 5:35
3 . Presence and Reflection 12:53
4 . Friction 4:32
5 . Black Light Poster Child 14:26
6 . Trip and Fall 6:24

Websites
www.myspace.com/redhooker

Album: REDHOOKER – The Future According To Yesterday (Soft Landing SLR001 2007)

Redhooker is the project of New Yorker Stephen Griesgraber, sometime member of Slow Six. The name comes from a Brooklyn neighbourhood called Red Hook. The Future According To Yesterday is a 25 minute four track mini album played by a chamber quartet of Griesgraber on guitar, fellow Slow Sixers Maxim Moston and Rob Collins on violin and Rhodes electric piano respectively, and Peter Hess on clarinet. The music is avant-rock/classical fusion in the Rachel’s tradition, but with its own distinct character. The record kicks off with “Sometimes She Speaks Gently” – a sweet, sad pastoral piece, but the tempo is raised significantly for “Animus”, a busy, almost baroque, tune with some deft interplay between the violin, guitar, piano and clarinet.

The second half of the album runs together as a kind of two part suite. “Sunday Silence” kicks off with a droning guitar before blossoming into a romantic, yearning piece that sounds like a Max Richter score for a particularly weepy movie. The drone returns at the end of the track and provides the bridge to “Twelve Times Goodbye”, probably the best of the four tracks. It has a kind of circularity to it, with its waltz time and several key changes allowing the mood to evolve subtly before the music fades into the same minimalist drone that introduced it.

This is an excellent little record. Its relative brevity helps the four tracks to breathe and to stand out individually more than they might on a 60 or 70 minute album. It feels concise and filler-free and I highly recommend it. I’m not sure how easy it is to get hold of – best check out the group’s MySpace page (link below).

Tracks
1 Sometimes She Speaks Gently 4:17
2 Animus 4:39
3 Sunday Silence 6:46
4 Twelve Times Goodbye 9:49

Website
MySpace/Redhooker