May 99

Description

In the spring of 1999, Charles Curtis, Alan Licht, and Dean Roberts embarked on an eleven-date European tour with an unconventional mix of drone, improvisation, and experimental rock. The concept was simple yet innovative: each night, they improvised a single piece while sustained sine waves played throughout the concert. May 99, an excerpt from three shorter pieces recorded for a radio show at VPRO in Amsterdam towards the end of the tour, represents a high point in the collision of minimal and rock sensibilities that began to become prevalent in the late 90s and is a listen that surprises even those familiar with the musicians' other projects. May 99 combines resonant sine waves in the style of the Theater of Eternal Music by prominent New York composer La Monte Young with scrapes, scratches, and chirps produced by Licht and Roberts' guitars, Curtis' cello, and various electronic devices. Just as the sine waves hold these diverse improvisations together, a common trend towards minimalism brought together three musicians with very different backgrounds, creating a fertile ground on which they generated the unclassifiable sounds of the album.