fw03 - - Tiny Hairs Coldless

release date: January 2004
running time: 62 minutes

price: $12 U.S., £10 U.K.   Order>>>

mp3: Name Changed to Persimmon [4.7mb]
url: www.tinyhairs.com

Coldless is the second full length CD release from Chicago improvising sextet Tiny Hairs: eleven ambient-improvisational tracks of warm brilliance recorded in Chicago during 2002/2003. Each track was improvised live in the studio, with the band taking a reductive approach to editing, only altering the tracks to remove extraneous material from the overall compositional path. Each track virtually appears as it was played, with the exception of a few overdubs.

The music on Coldless patiently navigates spontaneous lullabies, free noise nastiness, somnolent near-grooves, and topographical points in-between. The music is as complex and difficult to categorize as it is quiet, sleepy, harsh, concentrated, minimal, ambient, free, spacious, and folk influenced.ÝTiny Hairs are as unafraid of melodic beauty as they are of kicking up a storm of noise.
 

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Reviews of  Tiny Hairs Coldless

01/16/2004
indieworkshop.com: Tiny Hairs Coldless
 

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01/16/2004

indieworkshop.com, Iowa

indieworkshop.com

reviews/

Tiny Hairs Coldless (False Walls)

Tiny Hairs intrigue me. This Chicago based sextet is more of an experiment in sound than it is a musical group. It’s not to say that all you are going to get is random noises on their second proper album, but this is a record for the adventurous music listener.
Your first clue this isn’t your average run of the mill recording has nothing to do with the album itself. You should know right away when you hear the words “Chicago” and “improvised” that you are in for what could be a challenging listen.

Eleven tracks of hushed, haunted, minimalist sounds are what await the brave. But while some will undoubtedly pass this off as “noise” or even wankery, a close listen reveals so much more. The easy metaphor is “a soundtrack to a silent movie that hasn’t been filmed yet”…if you search for other reviews I’m sure you’ll find more than a few that say that…but it has a much darker quality than film can capture. I can’t help but think that everything had to be recorded by less than candlelight. The darkness is not a creepy one, but just an overwhelming haunted feeling. It’s a very uneasy feeling like you are not listening to the album alone.

The songs ebb and flow like waves washing up against the sand. The music moves more like water than it does sounds. It’s an album that doesn’t wash over you with powerful white noise, or surround you with huge melodies, but it does suck you in just the same. Instead of being enveloped in sound, you are grasped by the anticipation of what direction the music will take next.

I seem to be on a good run of “not for everyone” type of albums, but maybe down the road I won’t have to feel like that. Maybe one day the understated art of improvised music will be for everyone. But for now, it seems to be reserved to those you like a little challenge with their music listening. And to those who do enjoy a contemplative listen… I say, listen on.

- Jake