Here’s how we chose to introduce Barn Owl to the uninitiated in the lead up to Supersonic Festival in 2011.

“Supersonic 2010 attendees will perhaps need no introduction to the stunning dust-trails of sound that San Franciscan duo Barn Owl create. The band were so well received that we just had to get them back for Supersonic 2011. In the past year, the praise for their mesmerising drones and layered feedback has slowly built up into a huge wall of superlatives. It’s taking all our strength here at Capsule to avoid waxing lyrical about “hauntingly beautiful sonic waterfalls” and the like! Rock-A-Rolla even went so far as to say that their 2010 album ‘Ancestral Star’ on Thrill Jockey was “the most significant experimental drone album since [SunnO)))’s] ‘Monoliths & Dimensions’”.

What you definitely get with Barn Owl is a hugely powerful immersive experience. Frequently playing in front of modified super 8 footage, the twin guitars of Evan Caminiti and Jon Porras intertwine instinctively, equal parts slow-burning twang and spaced-out feedback drone. It’s hard to stop those superlatives flowing. The band have just released a new EP ‘Shadowlands‘ that adds a devotional aspect reflective of artists like Popul Vuh (especially their soundtrack for the Werner Herzog film ‘Fitzcarraldo’) and Alice Coltrane, and their new full-length ‘Lost In The Glare‘ will be out on 13th September. (Free mp3 here.) Both Caminiti and Porras are solo artists releasing on labels like Root Strata and Three Lobed Recordings and Caminiti is also an established visual artist.”

They’re back in Birmingham on Saturday 27th April at St Paul’s Church with Grumbling Fur and Ex Easter Island Head. Tickets are available via www.theticketsellers.co.uk

More information on their Electric Totem site.

Barn Owl & Jefre Cantu-Ledesma Live At The Cube (Bristol) from Fluid Radio on Vimeo.

Barn Owl – Light from the Mesa from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Thrill Jockey have released a second preview of the new Barn Owl record ‘V’. The track is called ‘The Long Shadow’ and is the perfect taster for their show at Birmingham’s St Paul’s Church in April.

“Similarly to ‘Void Redux’, our previous taster of the album, the track combines guitars with the duo’s new, more synth-heavy approach: a skeletal, baroque guitar line snakes its way through the track, while electronics tick and whirr beneath, underpinned by a mighty leviathan of an organ powering away in the lower reaches”. The Quietus

In addition to pushing the genres of drone and ambient guitar further than most, the Barn Owl guys seem to have pretty good taste when it comes to selecting records. Check out their playlist for Self Titled mag featuring Swans, Les Rallizes Denudes and Fushitsusha.

You can purchase advance tickets for their show in Birmingham on Saturday 27th April at St Paul’s Church with Grumbling Fur and Ex Easter Island Head via www.theticketsellers.co.uk

The new album ‘V’ by Barn Owl will be released on Thrill Jockey on 15th April.
“This record marks a shift in approach from the duo. The pair augmented their arsenal of guitars and effects with an array of electronics, vastly expanding the album’s sounds and textures. Special attention was given to implied rhythms

nestled within dense slow building environments, giving album a rhythmic presence, albeit one that is buried beneath intricate layers. There’s a ghostly rhythm, almost beyond reach.”

They play Birmingham’s St Paul’s Church on Saturday 27th April. Tickets are available via www.theticketsellers.co.uk

Watch the live video for the opening track ‘Void Redux’ which was filmed live at Thrill Jockey’s 20th Anniversary event in San Francisco last year.

We’ve just announced a very special show to take place on Saturday 27th April. We’re big fans of Barn Owl over at Capsule, and are thrilled to invite them back to Birmingham, and have them play in the stunning setting of St Paul’s Church. Playing in front of modified super 8 footage, the twin guitars of Evan Caminiti and Jon Porras intertwine instinctively, equal parts slow-burning twang and spaced-out feedback drone.

They’ll be joined by Grumbling Fur, a project by Alexander Tucker and Daniel O’Sullivan and Liverpool based Ex Easter Island Head (for fans of Rhys Chatham, Glenn Branca).
Tickets are now on sale via theticketsellers.co.uk

Barn Owl live at Supersonic Festival 2011: