Here's the other half of the conversation (over beers) between Locrian and Jamie Ludwig at Invisible Oranges.com.
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"When two of the most innovative groups in heavy music today — Chicago-based avant-garde trio Locrian and Seattle art/drone duo Mamiffer — announced they were teaming up for a studio collaboration, the resulting album, Bless Them That Curse You (Profound Lore/SIGE/Utech), quickly became one of the earliest “most-anticipated” releases of 2012 among fans of experimental and extreme music.
Comprised of co-founders André Foisy and Terence Hannum, along with percussionist Steven Hess, Locrian has been challenging listeners with concoctions of ambient noise, black metal, extreme electronics, and free jazz (among other styles), since 2005. Locrian certainly don’t seem to lack either creativity or industriousness, having produced upwards of 25 releases, often packaged in limited editions and in a variety of formats. Their fourth and most recent full-length, The Clearing (Fan Death), was released last fall to critical acclaim.
Mamiffer is the project of husband-and-wife duo Aaron Turner (whom you may remember from such acts as Isis and House of Low Culture) and Faith Coloccia (former Everlovely Lightningheart). Mamiffer’s 2008 debut full-length, Hirror Enniffer (Hydra Head) was an otherworldly exploration marked with unfamiliar, often uncomfortable pairings, such as a simple, clean piano melody layered over a menacing cloud of grey fuzz.
Produced by Greg Norman at Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago, Bless Them That Curse You contains many harsh, noise-laden, epic moments, but its overall tone is one of beauty and grace, wrapped in a darkness that feels more questioning than foreboding, and more mysterious than dismal. Although the material was largely improvised in the studio, the album sounds as though its members had been crafting music as a single unit for years.
Just days before the album’s February 28 release date, I conducted a lengthy interview with members of Locrian. For the rest of the interview with Foisy and Hess about the making of the record and the unique experience of collaborating with relative strangers, visit my blog, Uneasy Listening.
— Jamie Ludwig"
Link here.
