Geoff Mullen
The Air in Pieces
"Dronologist and
sometime string plucker Geoff Mullen, whose fantastic thrtysxtrllnmnfstns we so
recently highlighted, is back already with his 2nd full-length compact disc,
this time on the Last Visible Dog label, which makes perfect sense. Maybe
murkier and even more abstract (we're pretty sure he's playing guitar, but we
don't hear any back-porch banjo here) than his debut, The Air In Pieces features
eight tracks, each one for the most part a gentle, slowly unfolding ballet of
dense, deep drones and whispering vibrations from below. It's the music of
subterranean behemoths, Lustmord-like whale calls, sleeping, dreaming, but very
physically present. Material that could perhaps be spooky, but in Mullen's hands
all this low-register distortion is bent towards light-filled blissfulness.
We're very pleased. Two for two for Mr. Mullen, and neither record really sounds
entirely like the other."
--Aquarius Records
The Wire's new super star, Geoff Mullen, is nothing new to us. Here in Providence he's a staple at nearly any show worth seeing, but instead of developing a solid roster of standards, every night it is something different, he's trying something new that nobody has tried before (or at least that he hasn't tried before...) LVD was proud to share Geoff Mullen with the world on our 6 CD Invisible Pyramid comp, which was shortly followed by a full length CD on Entschuldige, which has already received much acclaim.
This second full-length CD shows Mullen working in much the same way he does live, namely, 'The Air in Pieces' is a completely different side of Mullen than the one we hear on his first CD and the compilation. Comparisons come in two forms: It is easy to think of the Neil Young that wrote the Dead Man soundtrack, just as it is easy to think of Keiji Haino in pure guitar exploration mode (those darker Fushitsusha moments), but it isn't musicians one thinks of when they listen to 'The Air in Pieces'. Instead come vacant worlds, glaciers and the near frozen ecosystems underneath them, endless skylines and silence save the sound of your own breath.
If there is a soundtrack to that perfect, beautiful isolation, Mullen's efforts here seem right on the mark.