December 08, 2002

Sybarite [sonna] Lilienthal "Make Shift Carousel"

Records like this are rather nice on the ears. Instrumental music can often be rather difficult to write about, because there's only so much that you can say. Luckily, a record like Make Shift Carousel, as vague as it is, provides very little need for long, drawn-out description. Apparently, Sonna sent both Sybarite and Lilienthal a guitar melody, to which they would collaborate via long-distances. With no descriptions other than the titles of the songs and credits, it's rather difficult to know who contributed what.

No matter, though. The first song, "Make Shift," is apparently a collaboration between Sonna and Sybarite. It's a lovely little number that sounds quite like a Sybarite song--meaning that it's calm, repetitive, and laced with a lovely guitar and keyboard melody. "Carousel" is a collaboration between Sonna and Lilienthal, and while the basic sound is still calm and repetitive, it's also a bit rougher than the Sybarite collaboration, with a droning melody line and more of an electronic beat.

The last two songs are a collaboration between the three. "Four Way Street" is a brief snippet that leads into "From A Person We Seam," which finds all three artists pulling out the stops and creating an ambient, beat-laden, drone-rock electronic beast of a song that runs through several different styles and sounds and seems to last much longer than its nine-minute mark.

While Make Shift Carousel may be brief, it's certainly a most lovely little record. It's certainly worthy of being rescued from obscurity--two songs of which were released on a very limited seven inch single on a rather obscure European label. With the world in such a stressful state, any little slice of relaxation is worth the price, especially when made by three equally talented artists.

--Joseph Kyle

No comments: