Courtly Illusion Limited - Untitled (Space Slave 14)

another wild trip with my buddy, Maximus. the tape recorder is for special music.  peace and love to my friends at Humboldt Relief :)

Duo exchanges from deep within the blissful waves and haze of the time lag.  It is the sacrosanct setting from which their sonic alchemy buzzes and fizzes unabated.   Nobody does it quite like Grant and Rachel Evans, recording as the Courtly Illusion Limited on Space Slave Editions.  They have a proficiency for creating gorgeous soundscapes of tremendous depth.  On this release, they utilize manipulated rhodes and guitar to produce elegiac waves that sit atop the dank haze.

As side A commences, wistful recollections weave through formations of hiss and warble.  The rhodes is an apt selection for this type of music.  It's characteristics imbue the recording with otherworldly beauty.  The blues-like vibrations of the rhodes reminds me of how Chick Correa and Keith Jarrett would temper the fusion of Miles Davis with the strike of a reverberating chord.  Subtle shifts lead to plaintive notes and vacillating guitar.  The flipside is equally as beautiful.  In the beginning, pensive notes reverberate until the last particle of energy has been exhausted; surreal energy that exists with a loop of fractured guitar.  The manipulated rhodes now exhibits a different texture.  Resonant transmissions coalesce with a disintegrating guitar loop.

It's been a fruitful year for Grant and Rachel and Space Slave.  The most recent batch is awesome.  Space Slave is at the top of its game.  Every tape is of top shelf quality.  Produced in an edition of 75 and sold out at the source, this tape may be purchased here.  One should act quickly, as beautiful things like this don't hang around too long.

peace and love, friends :)