Mem 1

Harmony is what makes a relationship tick. This is especially true when the couple ― here, Mark and Laura Cetilia ― are an electronics and cello duo that stretch translucent strands across their improvisations. For their third full-length, they've spiced things up with nine invitees for some inspired threesomes. For starters, Jan Jelinek underscores Laura's plangent picking and scraping with a muted, oblate wave that cycles until collapsing. Controlled feedback drones and either digital or field recorded birds punctuate a wide-open space created by Mark and Area C (Erik Carlson), simulating the plains at dusk. Frank Bretschneider is one of the few invited artists that truly take over a track, inserting a minimal but dense circuitry of pulses and echoes into the mix. The loveliest moments come from Kadet Kuhne's haunted digital hooting and the responses of trembling strings and upper-frequency tones. Like its ghost world cover art by Erik Skodvin, +1 opens a door into a world of half-light and mirage.