There’s nothing like a church performance to put a fine point on the meditative-spiritual practice of listening to music. Earlier this year James Jackson Toth (aka Wooden Wand) teamed up with drone/ambient musician William Fowler Collins for an album of modern pastorals, Under Stars and Smoke. Over three tracks, the album is stark and intimate, something you might listen to on headphones late at night when no one else is around. The inner workings of the collaboration are a mystery in terms of who-plays-what and how the duo’s individual contributions form the whole. Seeing them live, though, you can start to piece together a more complete picture of the composition. The performance we captured here, part of the excellent Music off McGolrick series at the Park Church Co-op in Greenpoint, finds the duo recreating most of album live in a single piece. Collins plays guitar throughout (often played with a brush), while Toth contributes vocals, harmonium, and guitar. Their performance comes off on the shorter side at under twenty-five minutes, but it’s riveting all the way through.
I recorded this with the mics way up close, capturing the music clearly as well as some of the unique acoustics of the church. The sound is excellent. Enjoy!
Download: [FLAC/MP3]
Stream:
James Jackson Toth & William Fowler Collins
2016-10-05
Park Church Co-op
Brooklyn, NY
Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by Eric PH
AKG C480B/CK61 > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV (24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (balance, normalize, fades) + Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ) > Audacity 2.0.5 (downsample, dither, tagging) > FLAC (16/44.1, level 8)
Tracks [23:39]
01. Live at Park Church Co-op
• Buy Under Stars and Smoke digitally from Bandcamp or on vinyl from Bear Tree Records
• • Buy Toth’s new tape Kilim at Bandcamp
• • • Buy William Fowler Collins music at Bandcamp
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