Spiral Joy Band
In The River
Spiral Joy Band are one of the descendants of Richmond VA's legendary musical juggernaut, Pelt. Active and mutating for nearly 20 years, the iteration of the Spiral Joy Band who recorded this session in Madison Wisconsin in 2011 was a trio. Troy Schafer, Patrick Best and Mikel Dimmick play an array of instruments -- violin, viola, harmonium -- to produce lush tapestries of the multiphonic drones for which they are known. I remember Pelt getting called 'The Hillbilly Theatre of Eternal Music' at …
Elvehjem
Recorded in Madison Wisconsin a year after In The River, the latest record from this amazing trio (Troy Schafer, Patrick Best, Mikel Dimmick) breaks a bit with Spiral Joy's drone-dominant tradition. There is a crackling, noise energy curtain surrounding much of the playing here that makes me remember the sound of the Richmond VA trio, Pelt, from whom Spiral Joy Band draw specific inspiration (as well as two members). The listed instruments are bowed gong, gong, bowed bowls, electric guitar, bowe…