Laura Cannell, from England, and Kate Ellis, from Ireland, are a pair of musicians collaborating at a distance on a year-long project in mutual isolation. Each month they release a new collection that pairs the former’s violin with the latter’s cello, along with other elements, notably Cannell’s angelic voice and light production techniques, such as a deep, unresolved echo. In combination, the dozen months of this work-in-progress are titled These Feral Lands – A Year Documented in Sound and Art. The final track of the March edition of Feral Lands came with a mention that it was the first time the duo had recorded simultaneously, and that they did so over the phone, which circumstances suggest that all of January and February, as well as the lion’s share of March, were accomplished with overdubbing: one musician supplying the other with material to subsequently complement. The April set is another batch of charactertistically verdant wonder, with Ellis adding double bass to the kit and Cannell’s voice taking on a shoegaze-like ethereality.
Album originally posted at brawlrecords.bandcamp.com. More from Cannell at lauracannell.co.uk and Ellis at kateelliscello.com.