The Birds are one of a myriad of offshoot projects springing out from Makoto Kawabatas larger-than-life Acid Mothers Temple collective. This one belongs to Cotton Casino and shes struck upon an inspired collaboration partner in Norwegian Per Gisle Galaen, who stands behind such austere granular ambient projects like the virtually unknown Slowburn (not to be confused with the Canadian alt-rockers). The pair have been exchanging tapes for a few years, and thus far their file-sharing has resulted in several hard-to-find but highly valued tour-only releases; but this album fleshes out that void. Somnambulant and captivating, Birds strikes equally upon the tonal texture of On Land-era Brian Eno and the gristly undertow of dirge fostered by Norways Deathprod and Supersilent. Galaen and Casino both lend their vocals to several tracks, but he prefers muttering and she prefers moaning and cooing, so the results are elegantly suspended from the cavernous productions like cobwebs. Given their minimal approach, the Birds succeed precisely by mining all the range inherent in their trappings. Of the eight tracks here, the range in both length and instrumentation is far-reaching. The buzz-saw guitar that bursts in and out on "Donkey, the treated sitar streaming through "In the Name of the River, each of these instruments bows in for only one song and then disappears. This may not be the high-octane follow-up long-time Acid Mothers fans were expecting from Cotton Casino, but its still highly recommended.
Given all your time in other projects, how did you two meet and how did the Birds come together? Per: We met while Acid Mothers Temple were touring Norway (I was their Norwegian promoter) for the first time in 2000. Our first time actually playing together was on stage in Nagoya, Japan in July 2003. Cotton: We met on the tour. He played before us, and I saw he played synthesiser. I wanted to play together, and I emailed him.
Is this a one-time project? Per: I am sure we will play more together, but I can't say under what name. We have more songs that we want to release, and it would be fun to do more touring indeed. Cotton: Now I have my life and projects with my husband and 6-month-old baby son, and we spend almost all our time in the U.S.. Music is our life, so we keep playing. We have plans to tour and Per will join our Cosmic Triple Tagteam tour in the UK; we will keep in touch. So we will play and record and release when possible.
(Important)Given all your time in other projects, how did you two meet and how did the Birds come together? Per: We met while Acid Mothers Temple were touring Norway (I was their Norwegian promoter) for the first time in 2000. Our first time actually playing together was on stage in Nagoya, Japan in July 2003. Cotton: We met on the tour. He played before us, and I saw he played synthesiser. I wanted to play together, and I emailed him.
Is this a one-time project? Per: I am sure we will play more together, but I can't say under what name. We have more songs that we want to release, and it would be fun to do more touring indeed. Cotton: Now I have my life and projects with my husband and 6-month-old baby son, and we spend almost all our time in the U.S.. Music is our life, so we keep playing. We have plans to tour and Per will join our Cosmic Triple Tagteam tour in the UK; we will keep in touch. So we will play and record and release when possible.