Alder & Ash - Clutched in the Maw of the World

Housed in a handcrafted 7" x 5" panoramic case with a glass mastered CD and digital download. There have been many pretty and sorrowful pieces written for cello in recent years, yet Alder & Ash seem discontent in this mild approach, opting instead to purge the demons with a more unsettling and destructive aural palette. Not to say it's all doom and gloom, as the moments of tension do give way to some resolve and enlightenment, but the true genius of Alder & Ash's music lies in the balance of these extremes. Clutched in the Maw of the World, the second full-length album from Alder & Ash, is as much maximal as it is minimal. It punctuates periods of barren calm with thunder and screams, before creeping back to the silence and the dusk. The album is comprised entirely of cello. Clutched... combines traditional classical modalities with gnarled, heavily treated modern techniques to devastating effect. Glass, wood, rain, stone and air are all present in the music, from the crystalline notes of the "Merciless Dawn" to the unyielding crashes and lumbering slabs of distorted rhythm of "A Seat Amongst God and His Children." Alder and Ash are not without their contemporaries, at times bringing to mind the lonesome bowed soundscapes of Warren Ellis, the calculated and darkly toned compositions of Christoph Berg, the rustic grandeur of the Montreal based label Constellation, or even the recent High Plains album on Kranky. With Alder & Ash's penchant for unconventional rhythmics and freeform, teeth-baring experimentation one could also draw comparisons to the work of Colin Stetson.