Loren Mazzacane Connors & Alan Licht

Loren Connor’s conceptions for guitar are some of the most deeply human and moving recordings ever cut. From the late ‘70s, recording under a raft of aliases (Loren Mazzacane, Loren Mattel and Guitar Roberts before settling on Loren Mazzacane Connors in the early 90s), he has pared down and honed a profoundly melancholic approach to guitar playing – an utterly deep introspection told in aching, weeping guitar lines; melodic, simple and with heartbreaking staccato phrasing; always minimal but somehow entirely epic.

Loren has a long history of collaboration, having worked with Jim O’Rourke, Keiji Haino, John Fahey and Thurston Moore amongst many others. His work with Alan Licht though, is particularly inspired; Licht seeming to have an ability to craft simultaneously abstract and intuitive improvisations in tandem with Connor’s peeling sound. Whether the work is fragile and quiet or laden

Jandek

Jandek’s is a melancholic, ghostly and desolate moan of a voice, as haunted as any of the great blues singers, bent to a sometimes iron, sometimes faltering will; enunciating far-sighted yet personal visions of universal existential truths. The songs are full of allegorical fictions and metaphoric dramas, degenerate and oblique blues imagery, hallucinatory theology and corrupted childhood memories.

The audio and video recordings of this performance, called Afternoon of Insensitivity, were released as Manhattan Tuesday (Corwood 0788) and lists the tracks as

Afternoon of Insensitivity

Part One (13:04)

Part Two (20:44)

Part Three (9:56)

Part Four (11:24)

Part Five (12:39)

Part Six (7:06)

Part Seven (18:25)

MV & EE

MV & EE is a Vermont based group of musicians orbiting around Matt “MV” Valentine and Erika “EE” Elder alongside a rotating cast of additional musicians. Their style is self-described as “lunar ragas”, with many of the lyrics dealing with celestial imagery. They combine Indian raga style composition with Appalachian folk and post-psychedelic electrical experimentalism.