In the realm of ‘signature sounds,’ there are few who can claim a space as individualized as that of Dylan Carlson. As the spearhead of Earth, he’s refined drone rock into something that can be minimal as easily as orchestral, evocative or off-putting depending on whims, and his solo work as Drcarlsonalbion only moves further out from there, whether it’s the soundtrack he did to the film Gold (review here), reminiscent of Neil Young‘s for Dead Man, or the explorations of British folk that he’s taken up the last several years with Earth and in his own outings, typified in the upcoming solo release, Falling with a Thousand Stars and Other Wonders from the House of Albion.

What may or may not be a collaboration with Coleman Grey in its final form, the album was initially funded through a (successful) Kickstarter last year and will be officially issued next month. It’s streaming now on Bandcamp, however, and you can hear it on the player below. Like everything the man touches, it’s worth getting lost in.

Have at it:

Drcarlsonalbion self-release – Falling With A Thousand Stars And Other Wonders From The House Of Albion

Dylan Carlson is to officially self-release Falling With A Thousand Stars and other Wonders From The House Of Albion on 25 June.

“The concept behind this album ‘Falling with a Thousand Stars and Other Wonders From The House of Albion’, was my interpretations of Scotch-English folk ballads about human/supernatural interaction, specifically those ‘spiritual creatures’ known as ‘fayres/fairies/etc.’ Not the tiny winged ones of Victorian nursery stories and decor, but the beings of folklore and the historical records (mostly trial dittays from witch trials). The genesis was my own personal encounters that occurred in 2010-11 and that have occurred occasionally since that time. The album is solo guitar played by myself. It was originally going to have environmental recordings from sights of human/fayre encounters, but unfortunately those recordings were unusable. The album was recorded at crackle’n’pop studios in Seattle with Johnny Sangster as engineer. It is part of a project that was funded initially by kickstarter, and self funding on my part. There is also a short film, dir. Clyde Petersen, released with the cd, and a book (tba).” – DRCARLSONALBION

Having founded seminal rock band Earth in 1989 in Olympia, Wa., Dylan Carlson has since been recognised as the originator of what came to be known as ‘drone metal’ or ‘ambient metal’. As the sole original member and principal songwriter of the Seattle based band, Carlson continues to explore new ground and remains an innovator in his musical career and a compelling character outside of it.

As Earth continues to reach new heights, Carlson also extends his musical repertoire towards solitary endeavours. His solo projects, initially under the moniker ‘drcarlsonalbion’, continue the sustained, expansive motifs found in Earth, but under the influence of the traditional folklore, fayre lore and occult history of England and the British Isles. Shorn of band interplay, the focus is on Carlson’s unique ‘voice’ of amplified guitar and tone.

Never one to be confined to a single genre or label, Carlson’s solo ventures have given him the freedom to experiment with other genres and musicians alike: from his ongoing improvisational work and performances with Dutch free-jazz drummer Rogier Smal, to his collaboration with British experimental dub artist Kevin “The Bug” Martin for the Bug vs Earth Boa / Cold EP in 2014. Most recently he joined forces with Maddy Prior of Steeleye Span, recording a song commissioned for broadcast on BBC Radio. (Psalm For A Revival, 2015)

Guitar remains at the forefront of Carlson’s solo work. His Gold soundtrack (2014) – composed for Thomas Arslan’s German feature film of the same title (2013) – features deliberate and lingering guitar themes. They evolve into forms that fade into the horizon, evoking the desolate wilderness of the American continent. Depth becomes apparent in negative space.

His latest album, Falling with a Thousand Stars and Other Wonders from the House of Albion (2016, self-released and initially funded via Kickstarter, consisting of a documentary film and book) sees a return to Carlson’s love of Albion’s supernatural days of yore. Through droning 6 and 12-string guitars, he reinterprets traditional old English and Scottish folk ballads into sombre instrumental pieces. Though a solitary venture, the textures are lush and immersive, summoning the ambiance of a lost time. Ever-present is that meditative, yet meticulous, “restrained majesty” of uncompromising repetition and intensity that is so characteristic of Carlson’s signature sound and style.

TRACK LIST:
1. Reynard The Fox
2. She Moved Thro’ The Faire
3. Alisson Gross
4. Rose In The Heather
5. Tamlane
6. King Orfeo
7. The Elfin Knight

https://www.facebook.com/drcarlsonalbion/
http://sargenthouse.awesomedistro.com/artists/earth
http://www.thronesanddominions.com/dylan-carlson

Drcarlsonalbion and Coleman Grey, Falling with a Thousand Stars and Other Wonders from the House of Albion (2016)

It should stand to reason that any Dylan Carlson solo outing released under the banner of Drcarlsionalbion (also stylized in all-caps or all-lowercase) should have a certain amount of continuity with Earth, since as much as that band has become a rotating-member collaboration, Carlson‘s guitar remains the driving force of it. He’s done a few solo releases at this point, a Latitudes session in 2012 brought particularly resonant results (review here), but the latest, Gold, has the distinction of being Carlson‘s first soundtrack work. That in itself is a little surprising. One wonders if it’s something he’s particularly avoided doing over the years or just never got around to with Earth. As focused on atmosphere as Earth has been since returning from a multi-year hiatus with 2005’s Hex: Or Printing in the Infernal Method — a landmark the influence of which continues to be felt nearly a decade later — to tap them for soundtrack work seems like a natural fit. Even working on his own, that proves to be the case with Carlson and Gold. The 24-piece offering serves as the score to a German western of the same name set and filmed in Canada, and Carlson sounds well in his element on these tracks, which vary from noodly snippets like the 18-second “Gold VIII” to full-song breadth like the closing “Gold XXIV,” which has enough of an end-credit feel at just under five minutes (it’s also the longest inclusion) to evoke a sense of finality even without the silence that follows. Through it all, Carlson‘s tone is very much his own, and clearly intent on portraying open spaces and an undercurrent of foreboding that never comes to outright terror, but lingers vague in the distance.

Watching the film and hearing Carlson‘s guitar complement footage of horses walking slowly through desolate woods, one can’t help but think of Jim Jarmusch‘s 1995 western, Dead Man, and Neil Young‘s guitar score for that, which had a similar echoing feel in places and which was a noted point of inspiration for Carlson with Earth‘s Hex album. Part of the appeal of Carlson‘s work over the years has been interpreting the feelings and emotions contained in what are usually very minimalist atmospheres, figuring out where the music wants to take you and then going to that place, and on that level, Gold taps into some of the similar big sky, wide-angle Americana that Hex did, though the spirit of this release is different because very often it jumps from one piece to the next before an ambience is fully set. That keeps Gold from really being able to be evaluated as a full-length album, but if you catch it in the right headspace, the vibe is open enough and consuming enough that you can get lost in Gold without really even realizing, the 44-minute span not a slog to wade through, but a well-honed dronescape comprised of individual glimpses. It is minimal — Carlson and his guitar. As Earth have expanded their sound in multiple directions over the last nine-plus (really almost 25) years around Carlson and drummer Adrienne Davies who joined in 2001, Drcarlsonalbion seems to be the place the guitarist retreats to in order to be alone with the frequencies he crafts. There are some other noises far back in the mix on “Gold V” and elsewhere, an obscure sense of someone hitting something with something else, an actual tom hit on “Gold XI,” but Gold has a lonesome sound and that’s clearly the intent from the beginning.

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Always fascinating, always exploring, Earth founder Dylan Carlson continues to grow a solo aesthetic apart and expanding on the signature drones of his long-running avant outfit. On Oct. 14, he’ll launch what’s essentially a long weekender, but during the week, in the UK, taking along with a new 7″ split with Rogier Smal, with whom he may or may not be performing on the tour. Call me crazy, but if you knew what you were getting outright, it just wouldn’t be the same.

The new drcarlsonalbion — Carlson‘s chosen banner for solo work to date — song, “Holly’s Jeans” is available now for streaming, and it follows the PR wire info below, which also includes hints at a new Earth album:

DYLAN CARLSON SOLO TOUR FAST APPROACHING; HEAR HOLLY’S JEANS FROM UPCOMING 7″ RELEASE

Expanding on the far-reaching folkloric explorations of drcarlsonalbion’s solo tour of last year, the totemic figure and his celebrated guitar will be bolstered by the accompaniment of Rogier Smal on drums on the upcoming UK tour which commences on 14 October in Bristol.

Incorporating free playing whilst maintaining the sublime recurrent elements Dylan Carlson is known far, Rogier Smal (Dagora, Marshall Allen, Mick Pontius) brings his singly unique and drumming capabilities to the heady mix.

The duo will be playing material from a split 7” released in conjuction with the tour, as well as expanding and elongating material from drcarlsonablion’s recent Hackney Lass and Latitudes series releases.

Today we can share the track “Holly’s Jeans” from the 7″ release…

Here are the tour dates:
Mon 14-Oct-13 Bristol, The Exchange
Tue 15-Oct-13 Leeds, Brudenell
Wed 16-Oct-13 Manchester, Soup Kitchen
Thu 17-Oct-13 London Lexington (w/Thurston Moore) *Matinee 5-8pm TICKETS STILL AVAILABLE*
Thu 17-Oct-13 London Lexington (w/Thurston Moore) *Main show 8pm SOLD OUT*

Earth will be playing an exclusive show at Unsound Festival in Krakow, Poland, on October 19th, alongside Monolake, King Midas Sound, Eyvind Kang and Altar of Plagues amongst others. The lineup for this show is composed of Dylan Carlson (guitar), Adrienne Davies (drums) and Bill Herzog (bass). In other Earth news, there is a new album in the pipeline, with further details to arrive in good time.

https://www.facebook.com/drcarlsonalbion

drcarlsonalbion, “Holly’s Jeans”

Even if you went into listening to Drcarlsonalbion‘s La Strega and the Cunning Man in the Smoke with no idea that it was Dylan Carlson of Earth behind it, you’d probably be tipped off within 10 seconds of the opening title-track. The long-running drone forebear’s style is so distinct, his sleepy minimalism so recognizable as it has long been at the core of Earth‘s resounding influence, that there’s just no getting away from it. It seems like whatever the context, Carlson sounds like himself.

And I guess it is the context that’s different, mostly. The surroundings. La Strega and the Cunning Man in the Smoke was recorded as a Latitudes session (see also releases by Blood and Time, Wino & Conny Ochs, The Entrance Band, Bardo Pond and many more), set to tape live in the Southern Studios in the UK — far enough away for the guitarist to be removed from the America in his Americana, if not the Americana itself. Joined by vocalist Teresa Colamonaco (also of London’s Screaming Tea Party) and fellow guitarist Jodie Cox, the seven component songs on the 42-minute full-length take on an English folk atmosphere, the opener pairing loops and feedback volume swells with Colamonaco‘s subdued, semi-spoken delivery while “Reynardine” carries a distinctly Gaelic air and accent.

All three players prove malleable. Colamonaco sings in an almost Scandinavian-sounding accent on The Kinks‘ “Wicked Annabella,” and Carlson‘s foreboding rumble there seems a far cry from the sweetened peaks of Richard Thompson‘s “Night Comes In.” The vocals give a sense of structure to Carlson‘s lines, as does Cox‘s own guitar, but even so, the 13:26 “The Faery Round,” the second track after “La Strega and the Cunning Man in the Smoke,” fills any instrumental or open-structure quota one might perceive for a Carlson release, his guitar offering tonal richness that’s nigh on orchestral as it paints images of the rolling English countryside later to be answered by the urbane impatience of the PJ Harvey cover, “Last Living Rose,” which closes.

After Earth‘s explorations of UK folk traditions on the two Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light albums, it doesn’t seem unreasonable that Carlson would look to push that inspiration further, and though it has its moments of indulgence — how could it not? — his first work under the Drcarlsonalbion moniker engages atmospherically with the calming effect that has been so prevalent in Earth‘s latter-day outings while also giving a different feel for what it is that he does with his guitar. Colamonaco‘s voice is a natural fit, and the penultimate “Little Woman” feels all the more intimate despite its two-guitar dynamic. There are parts of the album where one might miss some percussive aspect, but with a release like La Strega and the Cunning Man in the Smoke, the idea isn’t perfection or elaborateness of production, but rather the raw stuff of human songwriting and performance, and like other Latitudes sessions before it, this one certainly has that. It must be some room they record these things in.

As Earth‘s approach has grown increasingly complex with the additions of cello, horns, bass, etc. over the years, to hear him play as stripped down as he is with Drcarlsonalbion underscores how utterly vital he is to what Earth continues to do and how much he and the sound of that band are permanently intertwined, because just as one can’t hear Earth and not think of Dylan Carlson, one can’t hear Drcarlsonalbion and not think of Earth. That’s not to say the two don’t have distinct personalities between them — Colamonaco‘s presence here is enough to make that true and Cox‘s guitar complements in ways one just isn’t used to from recent Earth — just that the mark Carlson leaves on any of his outings is unmistakable and indelible, and that’s as true with La Strega and the Cunning Man in the Smoke as it has ever been.

Drcarlsonalbion’s website

Latitudes at Southern Records’ blog