Original image by There Stands the Glass.
I wondered how even the most enthusiastic fans of ambient music would manage to remain standing for two or three hours at a concert by claire rousay and Gretchen Korsmo at Holocene on Thursday, November 6. Light attendance and exceedingly brief performances made my concerns a mute point.
Folding chairs surrounding the dimly-lit makeshift stage accommodated the approximately 60 people who paid a $25 cover. Korso played 20 minutes. rousay played 45 minutes. The brevity of the sets made the evening seem like a glorified meet-and-greet. Dozens of devotees lined up to interact with rousay after the show.
The little music that was heard was excellent. In addition to fiddling with laptops and pushing buttons, both artists applied live instrumentation to pre-recorded sounds.
I was pleased when Rousay launched into the self-diss track "somehow" from her excellent new album a little death. Yet an explanation of the mysterious track wasn’t offered. I regret not joining the post-show queue to demand rousay dissect the song for me.