phurnne: to love lightly...

"First album -- maybe even first physical release? -- by this exquisitely odd Massachusetts-based trio of sound-collagers. Violinist, Jen Gelineau, is well known to FTR lovers via her work with Eggs Eggs and Donkey No No. Laptop cruncher Andrea Pensado has likewise released a solo album with us -- Without Knowing Why -- as well as one with her old combo, Los Condenados -- Yeppers!. New to us is electronics-and-tapes-shuffler Stephanie Germaine, but she proves to be a dab hand at making sonic events wiggle in the air like some many Chinese ash-snakes. Phurnne is around five years old at this point, but they have kept a low profile until now, thinking (perhaps) that the long-form pieces they create are better suited to live performance than passive homebound listening. From my own personal viewpoint that's a crock of whale shit. The music Phurnne invents is so texturally subtle in spots you really need to be able to examine it inside a dark and quiet safe space. Their sound really only achieves its true stature when you actively listen to it (something that's not always possible in a live setting). The music is so tactile and original in the way it's layered, it kept reminding me of the one Nurse With Wound live show I caught. As with that concert, the difference between 'ordinary' (read: identifiable) sounds, and shards of pure imagination is destroyed here. Standard perceptual delineations are erased. And new terra incognito is being continuously uncovered. This is an album full of wonders. And as cool as the trio is in concert, it's very nice to have their music captured to examine at one's own leisure." --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 250.