drøne: a perfect blind

Disruption between then and now/memory and presence, dulcimer, psaltery, 'cellos, violas and violin embroider radio, static, stray voices, and electronics... A Perfect Blind is the second album by Drøne (Mark Van Hoen and Mike Harding) with an array of guest artists, including label supremo Anna von Hausswolff, dreamer and composer Paul Haslinger, field recordist and sound designer Charlie Campagna and Touch artists Bethan Kellough and Philip Jeck. Strings by Seattle-based Marie Takahashi and Oleg Belyaev are also layered into this complex and perhaps more musical offering. Moving in all directions, A Perfect Blind continues where Reversing Into The Future left off; A Perfect Blind was conceived and designed in Los Angeles with organ recordings from London (at Union Chapel), short wave radio, treated voices, and other archaic sound sources. A stunning front cover image by Maria von Hausswolff and miss-taken typography by Nico embrace this sense of dislocation; as the mediaeval language which enfolds our collapsing 19th century institutions fails to find relevance, our sense of entrapment in the old is accompanied by an assault on the senses. The destabilizing effect of "post-truth" adds to our sense of un-belonging, of being elsewhere, being observers not participants. A Perfect Blind is the term used for the best possible observation point where the viewer is unseen by the object of interest. Is this the best place to be? Memories which slowly fade away, also reverse back from the past shoving us into the future... Personnel: Oleg Belyaev - baroque 'cello; Charlie Campagna - 'cello; Paul Haslinger - piano; Philip Jeck - pulse; Bethan Kellough - violin, viola; Marie Takahashi - baroque viola; Anna von Hausswolff - voices.