Ben Chansy & Rick Tomlinson - Waves

With a friendship stretching back nearly 20 years, it strangely ended up being a couple of childhood photographs that finally brought Ben Chasny and Rick Tomlinson together as collaborators. “I was staying at Rick’s house after a show and I looked over and saw a photo of him in a Halloween costume as a box of matches. It cracked me up because I have a similar photo of me as a robot” Chansy recalled. "The entire record comes from the photos on the cover.”

The duo both have rich musical backgrounds: Chasny being a member of the psych-rock outfit Comets on Fire & his solo project, Six Organs of Admittance, while Tomlinson has released numerous records as Voice of the Seven Woods/Thunders and under his own name. 

'Waves' was recorded at Tomlinson’s home in Todmorden over three days one June. Initially unsure where they wanted to go with their musical direction, when the pair first sat down to work out ideas it became a guitar showdown, with each trying to outdo the other with flashy moves and ridiculous riffs. After that was out of their system, Chansy and Tomlinson were able to settle down and concentrate on a mood for the record to focus on. The result is 6 instrumental tracks that capture beautifully fluid and interlocking guitars played with deft grace and skill but also a subtle looseness.  

While acoustic guitars are the primary means of expression on the record - from the soothing and gentle ‘i’ to the intricate playing of ‘Waking of Insects’ - the pair delve  into ambient drone tape loop territory on the humming 16 minute ‘Paths of Ocean Currents and Wind Belts’, which further adds to the deeply textural, spacious and immersive feel of the album. All the tracks were recorded in one take, with the titles all stemming from translations from the Chinese book, The Dream Pool Essays, and then mixed in London at Jimmy Robertson's SNAFU studio, with additional mixing and mastering from Andrew Liles.