On

While remix projects are de rigueur in electronics, the methodology of On recordings follows a slightly different path. French composer/polymath Sylvain Chauveau and Chicago musician Steven Hess record an album's worth of tracks on prepared guitar and drums/percussion then hand it off to a new set of hands for (post-)/(re)production For 2004's Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night, those hands belonged to Deathprod's Helge Sven. This time it's Christian Fennesz doing the rewiring. While his touch is apparent, it is also transparent enough to highlight the original creators' sound. Notably Hess's signature tom and cymbal play, familiar to fans of Pan.American, passes through the title track unaltered. Fennesz also manages a subtle individuation of Chauveau's harmonic guitar tone that stands apart from his similar work. The album is more alive and awake than Sven's quiet nocturnal take on ambience. It also embraces the titular duality, finding solid shapes in the fog.