CROY, MAXWELL AUGUST & McCANN, SEAN: I
Maxwell August Croy & Sean McCann "I" LP
Composed and recorded in Los Angeles and San Francisco, “I” is the debut
full-length album by Maxwell August Croy and Sean McCann. Croy is best
known for his work in Bay Area duo EN, wherein he processes koto, voice,
and other instrumentation into ecstatic and nuanced drone-based
recordings. McCann is a solo artist whose work continues to undergo
seismic evolutions, manifested most recently on the justly lauded “Music
for Private Ensemble,” an album of autodidactic modern composition that
defies easy categorization. Working as a duo, Croy and McCann have
successfully synthesized compositional and aesthetic tropes from their
respective discographies in order to produce something extraordinary.
“Parting Light (Suite)” opens the album with a flurry of koto, cello,
and violin lines masterfully woven together; a complex movement that
dissembles to reveal a more spacious environment in which each gesture
takes on a heightened significance. Croy’s koto lends the piece an
Eastern aura that is complicated by McCann’s playing which is equal
parts idiosyncratic and grandiose. Elsewhere, “Alexandria” finds the duo
operating at their most celestial, working their instruments into a
harrowing, beautiful dirge comprised of clarion tones and wide-eyed
string arrangements. Ultimately, the sensibility cultivated by Croy and
McCann on “I” proves to be utterly unique, perhaps situated best
somewhere among the soundworlds of Gavin Bryars, Taj Mahal Travellers
and Richard Skelton. The LP was mastered by Rashad Becker and the jacket
features exclusive monotypes by Andrew Chalk.
Tracklist:
1. Parting Light (Suite)
2. Alexandria
3. Momiji
4. The Inlet Arc
5. Column of Mirror
6. Hollow Pursuits
