By Nick Ostrum
Crop Circles captures Robert Dick and Stephan Haluska in a flute,
harp, various small instruments and vocal duo. At its core, though,
Crop Circles
is a harp-flute duo, a rarity in almost any music, including the
contemporary avant-garde.
From the beginning, it is entrancing. Both Dick (primarily flute) and
Haluska (primarily harp) play their instruments in nonidiomatic ways,
eliciting a range of noises through creative techniques that run from Dick
mimicking the cluck of a saxophone to Haluska eliciting loose, tinny
vibrations that suggest anything but the classical harp. Both musicians seem
to derive special satisfaction in the minutiae and textures: soft clicks
and scrapes, or periodic sharp huffs (and whatever the harp-equivalent of
that breathy sound would be.) Of course, Dick and Haluska can hold their
own making more standard music, as well. That comes through well enough at
various points, but it is never the primary goal, here. Rather,
Crop Circles
is somewhat brazen in its deceptively crude fusion of the strange and
mundane. Sometimes, it touches on something almost primeval (in the deeply,
darkly human sense), as in the extended vocals chant on Owls Angry Over
Jumping Jacks. Other times, it seems intent on deconstructing and
thoroughly demystifying tradition, as in Narcissism Meets Necessity, which
layers clattery improv with periodic screams, duck sounds, a mouth harp and
a phlegmy back-throated hack. It takes something elevated – the combination
of flute and harp, expertly finessed free music, ethereal-minded
experimental music – and brings it back to our imperfect, pock-marked,
craggy, polluted, and, for all that (except the pollution), lovely earth.
Since picking this album up at the beginning of the year, it took me about
ten-months until I gave ita first serious listen. I am glad I
finally did. Crop Circles is available as a cassette or download
from Bandcamp: