Carter’s pieces tend to be almost mathematically simple, elegantly building stories out of polygons of repetitive melody, and Bailey leaves his impression on them as lightly but distinct as a watermark on vellum.
[Release page] Welsh pianist Anna Rose Carter and Canadian producer Christopher Bailey, both now based in London, make for a singular duo. Carter plays and Bailey plays with Carter’s playing. As she improvises on the spot, he moves stealthily, shaping the notes, sometimes, not always. Carter’s pieces tend to be almost mathematically simple, elegantly building stories out of polygons of repetitive melody, and Bailey leaves his impression on them as lightly but distinct as a watermark on vellum.
At times, the ten-minute opener “Explosions in a Four Chambered Heart” wavers in mirage heat and is wrapped in swirling dust devils. In other instances, it is just a ladies hand fan stirring the air and disturbing wisps of notes, mist in lamplight. A short breakdown in consistency occurs with “In Fiction,” an almost perfunctory attempt to play with the insides of the piano, which would better be called “In Friction.” But the album regains buoyancy with “She/Swimming,” floating over an understated, eau-de-Nil fundament toward the final, longer pieces (I think Moon Ate the Dark really does its best work in the longer duration format)—”Messy Hearts,” which explodes in all four of its chambers at the end, and a “Sleepwalk” which sounds like it is taking place in a cavernous, but empty, airport concourse.
Moon Ate the Dark is available on Sonic Pieces. [Release page | Morr Music distro]
