(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Alastair Galbraith was for a while one of the most eccentric singer-songwriters on the globe. His songs are often extremely brief, arranged with little more than a background noise, entrusted to a casually whispered melody, and yet performed with the concentration and majesty of a religious ceremony.
Galbraith began at fifteen with the Rip, who released two EPs, A Timeless Piece (Flying Nun, 1985) and, posthumously, Stormed Port (1986). The second is his first true record: Wee Wrecked Hymn inaugurates his passion for ancient music and Starless Road is his first arranging experiment. But Galbraith began to take himself seriously when singer Robert Scott called him to play violin in the Bats.
The single Timebomb (Xpressway), shared with Graeme Jefferies and released only three years after it was recorded, instead inaugurated his solo career, even if for a few years it unfolded entirely in anonymity. The cassette Hurry On Down (Xpressway, 1988) went unnoticed, while attention was drawn to the project launched with the EP Plagal Grind (Xpressway, 1989), with David Mitchell of the 3D's on guitar and Peter Jefferies on drums (a project to which Galbraith contributed a gem such as Marquesite Lace). Galbraiths songs, Yes Jazz Cactus, Marquesite Lace, Receivership, here rely on an almost dreamlike arrangement.
Seely Girn (Feel Good All Over, 1993) summarized (more than twenty songs) these complex beginnings.
Fame arrived gradually, through the EP Gaudylight (Siltbreeze, 1991) and the album Morse (Siltbreeze, 1992 - Trance Syndicate, 1996), later collected in Morse/ Gaudylight (Emperor Jones, 1996 - Table Of The Elements/ 2006), collections of short songs that presented him as the Syd Barrett of New Zealand.
Raining Here and Stalemate, two further small masterpieces, appear on the EP Cluster (Raffmond, 1994), while the EP Intro Version (Roof Bolt, 1994) contains experimental collages. These tracks confirm his position halfway between the most psychedelic Syd Barrett and the most nocturnal Tom Waits.
A Handful Of Dust is the project formed with Bruce Russell of the Dead C.
His greatness was established above all by the album Talisman (Next Best Way, 1994 - Table Of The Elements, 2006), a record of barely 36 minutes but containing as many as twenty pieces, including Yuhahi, Coast Road, Mrs Meggary and Black Flame. It is a sophisticated work that ranges from psychedelia to ambient music, from world music to atonality. These miniatures well represent his art inspired by ancestral folk and psychedelic rock. His laconic style has been compared to Japanese haiku and to the theatre of the absurd.
Other exercises in his concise minimalism can be found on the EP Tae Keening (Roof Bolt, 1996), in particular Navaho and Flickering Birds, and on the EP Rivulets (Camera Obscura, 1997), which is essentially a collection of sound experiments (notably the Tibetan drone of Rivulets and the subliminal noise of Star).
Galbraith continued experimenting on the single Hey Gus/ Leave It (Trance Syndicate, 1998), in collaboration with the Australian Pip Proud.
Mirrorwork (Trance Syndicate, 1998), originally titled Way Back Out (Next Best Way), celebrates his newly achieved maturity with an anthology of 24 tracks.
In the instrumental Doublet the melody is deconstructed in a cubist manner, turning it into a percussive flow with an Eastern flavor. Sob recalls the minimalist folk of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. In the distortion of For Free one seems to hear echoes of Scottish bagpipes, in that of Moth a raga. Guitars imitate bagpipes and the drums of Scottish bands in Ember, and Galbraith sings in the angelic tone of Syd Barrett. Traces of Syd Barrett also surface in the sleepy ballad This Hard. Frostfish is simply recited over a background of guitar dissonance.
Galbraith draws inspiration from the graceful melodies and delicate accompaniments of Renaissance madrigals in Ludd, Blue Room, Thoar and Raining Here, almost fairy-tale-like ballads in their enchanted execution.
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
Matt De Gennaro is an avantgarde musician who performs at the "piano wire".
The sound of the wire are determined by the environment in which they are played,
so that two performances in two different places can never be the same.
Wire Music (Corpus Hermeticum, 1999) is the result of a collaboration
between De Gennaro's wires and Galbrait's violin. Their layers of drones
display the hypnotic quality of the didjeridoo.
Cry (Emperor Jones, 2000) could be Alastair Galbraith's craziest work. The madman of psychedelic music concocts songs for another universe. Sound abides by a different logic. Tiny noises replace silence as the natural state of affairs. It is a mindscape in which disturbing visions of spiritual decay are mediated by senseless neuroses. In Bellbird Galbraith speaks over organ drones and metallic screech. A machine starts pounding and the violin screams like the sitar in a raga. Galbraith is still speaking, softly, as the noise subsides. In Full Soup Head Galbraith speaks over loud electronic oscillations, airplane-like roars, a loud resonance. A gentle melody plays on a mutilated string. In Forest Flower Galbraith speaks over pastoral pipes and sounds of nature. Galbraith impersonates an elf in this imaginary world that recedes at cosmic velocity.
His humble demeanor conceals a laboratory of bizarre experiments, from the sawing violin of Meatwork to the distorted melody of Wish (where the violin "sings" in a manner similar to
John Cale's viola in the Velvet Underground).
The tour de force of Koterana is a protracted ritual of sonic
self-flagellation that achieves mystical intensity.
Mostly instrumental, Cry "is" the cry of a soul that has seen something
that cannot be easily translated into words. Beyond pain, there is Cry.
Long Wires in Dark Museums (Emperor Jones, 2002), a collaboration with
avantgarde composer Matt DeGennaro, contains only three tracks, each recorded
live in complete darkness. Each piece is a duet. DeGennaro plays (or, better,
bows) wires strung across the room. Galbraith plays guitar in
Autahi, violin in Rehua and more wires in Antares.
The harsh vibrations of the wires are protagonists. This is an interesting
idea, but gets tedious after a while. Galbraith's violin adds some counterpoint
to the second piece, but hardly enough to matter.
The third piece fares better, after all, because at least it focuses on the
wires themselves. Its drones have the thick, sinister quality of LaMonte Young's
stationary music.
Radiant (Emperor Jones, 2003), a collaboration with drummmer Constantine Karlis, contains only two tracks.
Radiant (31 minutes) feels like many things at the same time: an extended solo by John Cale's psychedelic viola in the Velvet Underground; a sitar improvisation in an Indian raga; a Jimi Hendrix variation on a folk theme; a duo of Chicago jazz improvisers. The flow of emotions is vibrant and imposing.
The much shorter Four Orbits is a less focused work that seems to explore
more technical issues.
From The Dark (Xeric, 2006) continued the experiment
a` la Ellen Fullman
with Matt De Gennaro and long metal wires.
Belsayer (Time-Lag, 2006) is the product of a long-distance collaboration among Alastair Galbraith, Richard Youngs and Alex Neilson that yields some languid droning ragas, notably
Coral and
Firelore.
Orb (Nextbestway, 2007) returned Galbraith to his
lo-fi experimental folk music for catchy refrains (Head Down),
handmade or distorted
instruments (Bird Ghost Viola, Short Dream for Fire Organ),
and electronic noise (Here Not There).
The only drawback is that the 19 pieces are very short and, ultimately,
inconclusive. But then maybe that was precisely his point.
Galbraith's
Mass (Siltbreeze, 2010) sounded a bit too casual, its short songs more
like abstractions than actual artifacts.
