Suzanne Langille, Andrew Burnes, David Daniell, and Loren Connors - Let the Darkness Fall

Honestly, the Loren Connors catalogue is something so vast and giving it's surely bordering on philanthropic at this point. Let the Darkness Fall, which finds Connors and his wife, Suzanne Langille, joined by Andrew Burnes and David Daniell from San Agustin (a new and revelatory discovery for me, i must say), was recorded live to Tascam in the former's apartment in the summer of 1998 and first released as a highly limited CD in '99. Recital continue their usual good work with this highly welcome first time vinyl pressing. Don't be deceived by its modest inception. This is remarkable, ground moving stuff, broadly fitting within the context of Connors other work from that period but also speaking clearly of his co-collaborators involvement. Langille's vocal is a perfect foil to the band's open-ended lonesome blues, a smoky siren song voice that's surely seen the Dark Night of the Soul and lived to mourn the tale, channeling a similar earthy mewl to Mary Margaret O'Hara, early Chan Marshall or the Rutkowski sisters' appearances with This Mortal Coil. Since this was released in 1999 and stands as a precursor to/in tandem with their work as Haunted House, i might be tempted to label this as post-rock, which is halfway right given how little lip service it pays to rock orthodoxy, detouring from conventional understandings of structure or form. Why it doesn't quite fit is because Let The Darkness Fall divines itself in such elemental, physical ways, not so much that it isn't cerebral (a characteristic of so much post-rock, for better or worse), but felt rather than thought, a candlelit vigil to shared emotional understanding. 25 years gone and we're right back in that room.