The Lost Mariner

For the dexluxe LP+7-inch reissue of this album, go here.

Electric bassist Darin Gray has walked the line with Jim O'Rourke, KK Null, and Kevin Drumm, and in the bands Dazzling Killmen, Brise Glace, and You Fantastic -- not to mention Grand Ulena and On Fillmore. Now forget all of those names and just listen. Guitarist Loren MazzaCane Connors is an avant blues legened. Releasing LPs since 1978, Loren has forged a uniquely personal and expressive approach to free floating guitar music, equal parts primitive American blues and proto-Japanese howl. The Lost Mariner is an improvised dialogue between these two musicians. Structure is there, but it roams as it sways, constantly adjusting and reinventing itself as the two react to its mysterious design. Their delicate whispers are as eloquent as many improvisors' loudest howls.

"Gray is an articulate and compelling melodist; in places Connors reponds to him by twisting melancholy counter-melodies around his like ivory around wrought iron, but elsewhere he uses efects to turn his usually distinct notes into black, cavernous sound masses that aptly frame Gray's extrapolations." -- Bill Meyer, Signal to Noise