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LINKS [AB-OC-37] BLACK FOREST/BLACK SEA - Portmanteau  10" LP only $10 USA; $20 World 1. Gemittarius [MP3] excerpt only 2. Aquemini Secret Eye house band Black Forest/Black Sea present a new 10" of exclusive material. The duo is joined by guests Margot Goldberg and Joe Grimm (a.k.a. The Wind Up Bird). This quartet version of BF/BS is the very same lineup that performed at Terrastock 6. Silkscreened metallic silver covers - limited to 500 copies. REVIEWS "Black Forest/Black Sea quietly released a new 10-inch vinyl record, Portmanteau, earlier in the spring. The band's fourth release, it features the duo along with guest musicians Joseph Grimm and Margot Goldberg (Miriam's sister and a Pittsburgher as well). Divided simply into two improvised halves, Portmanteau layers simple underlying themes created by the string instruments with electronic noise -- sometimes raucous and sometimes shimmering, but never overly harsh. Side A, "Gemittarius," is largely quiet, the bowed strings taking the lead and percussive sounds acting as punctuation. The feedback manipulation that permeates the B side, "Aquemini," threatens to overpower the ensemble, but is always kept in check, never quite careening out of control. That control and thematic sameness -- within reason, without inducing boredom -- colors the recording and BF/BS's music on the whole. It might be a stretch to call BF/BS immediately accessible to the uninitiated (experimental improv rarely is), but the music does appeal on a visceral level, creating emotional moments and ideas without relying on an assumed musical meta-knowledge as some experimental work does." - Pittsburgh City Paper "The 'Secret-Eye House Band' Black Forest/ Black Sea returns to shred their strings for your amusementt and general state of higher consciousness. Seems like all has been quiet on the BF/BS front for a while so this 10" comes as a pleasant return. The A-Side is a caterwauling din of strings and scuzz that plays out like a clean psychotic break; tumultuous and calming in the same instant. While the flip side, delves deeper into the broken consciousness quasi-spiritualness of eastern strings and dissonant twangs." - Raven Sings The Blues [AB-OC-08] BLACK FOREST/BLACK SEA - Black Forest/Black Sea  CD only $12 USA; $16 World This title is currently OUT OF PRINT, sorry 1. Sevastopol 2. Blackbird on Gray Sky 3. Middle Song 4. Banjo Song 5. Beautiful Here 6. Sunday Market 7. Lump in Throat Shimmering free-folk from Secret Eye's own Jeffrey Alexander (guitar) and Miriam Goldberg (cello). The duo combine electro-acoustic instrumentation and elements of improvisation, folk, pop, and general freak-out. This is their debut album, a split label release with Last Visible Dog. BF/BS recently completed a European tour that spanned fourteen countries and three and a half months (from January to April of 2004). REVIEWS "Black Forest/Black Sea is primarily Jeffrey Alexander and Miriam Goldberg, an unusual folk styled duo who sound straightforward enough on first hearing, until something unexpected turns the simply plucked banjo song they are playing upside down. Backwards backwoods playing, electronic effects, a shortwave radio and some knob twiddling are all incorporated into their sound, which twists from traditional folk Americana to beatbox Improv and back again. Nothing, however, is quite what it seems, and this constant sound shifting gives Alexander and Goldberg's musically metamorphic contribution to the New Weird America cult an edge over the competition. For BF/BS are genuinely strange." - The Wire "On their debut, Providence-based Black Forest/Black Sea offer seven chilly field recordings placed within a half-improvised framework of guitar, cello and sundry accented glitches. After piecing together a magnificent patchwork tent of bark, calico fabric, twisted vines, and fallen stars, the duo-- featuring ex-members of experimental folk troupe Iditarod-- sets up an austere camp in the enchanted psych-folk glen also inhabited by Ghost, Charalambides, Six Organs of Admittance, Fursaxa, and the Jewelled Antler Collective. In addition to Jeffrey Alexander's guitar (finger-picked and bowed) and Miriam Goldberg's cello (pitch-shifted and ring modulated), Black Forest/Black Sea incorporate hissing short-wave radio, omnichord, haunting vocal melodies, saxophone, rusty percussion, 8-rpm phonograph, reel-to-reel noise, drone, feedback, fireside crackles, and some general knob turning. Catchier, darker, and less composed than their Iditarod forebears, Black Forest/Black Sea's diminutive freak-outs are surprisingly addictive. "Sevastopol", which reverences the Ukrainian Black Sea fishing port, is an autumnal patch of creepy chamber-music woven with repetitious arpeggios, sturdy cello, backward loops, and the scent of a woodsy bacchanalia. The heavily-plucked "Blackbird on Gray Sky" employs female vocals and swirling instrumentation to lock into its groove, a straightforward troubadour piece until the vocals double and crunchy percussion begins to accompany what sounds like a warped singing saw, bird calls, spectral voices, and shimmering electronics. "Beautiful Here", meanwhile, is more trebly and compressed, a muffled sonic effect like the strains of Medieval bards leaking to your eardrum from someone else's headphones. The lyrics capture the deceptively simple remembrance of a forestall epiphany: the song ends with a field recording of birds, breezes, trees. Here and elsewhere, Black Forest/Black Sea tweak a sylvan melancholy; even when the players are happy, it's depressing. Though each song is successful in its own small way, on "Sunday Market", the acid-folk finally explodes outward with a jangling astronomy. Locating the bedroom version of Magic Hour's transcendent density, a quick Casio beat and snowballing of layered sounds-- alto sax, jarring spring reverb, and caterwauling feedback pretending to be a pack of crows-- catapult the listener into quaking treetops. If every track reached these heights, this record would be required listening; triple the length of "Sunday Market" and godhead is not simple hyperbole. The finale, "Lump in Throat", neatly brings the vibe back down to earth; its organ drones and synthesized drum beat lay a foundation for end-time stargazing, intuitively capturing the fragile rhythms of cracked branches: place a pillow over your head, grab your water-damaged copy of The House of The Seven Gables, and await your next personal witch hunt. Regardless of the modest earlier tracks and the brevity of the whole affair, there's plenty of beauty shot through this old-world sleepwalk. Especially impressive as a debut, at this point Black Forest/Black Sea offers a gorgeous snapshot of the free psych underground, one of the purest spaces of otherworldly terrain in the current musical landscape. I look forward to future incantations." - Pitchforkmedia 
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