Fessenden and grey ghost at the Ice Factory

Thu. 3/3
Fessenden, Grey Ghost, Things Falling Apart,
The Autumn Waking
at The Ice Factory
526 N Ashland, Chicago
for more info www.fprecords.com

Fessenden
S/T 3 song ep
Self Released
2005

For copies of the CD
at a mere $6 inc. S+H.
and for Tour info and booking inquires
Contact the band at

[email protected]


Fessenden a Chicago based 3 piece, has produced a beautifully eerie melange of layered, textural compositions that is both melodic and dissonant. In spite of sounding like computer composed music at times, Fessenden is very much a live band. In fact there is no computer in site. The compositions are all improvised from a underlaying written structure with Joshua Convey on Bass, Stephen Fiehn on Guitar, (and what ever else he can get his hands on, not excluding the melodic hums of broken CD players) and Steven Hess on Drums
Both Stephen and Josh feed their instrumentation through a phrase samplers which gives them infinite flexibility and an incredibly full and layered sound.

Josh and Stephen have a rare relationship where they grew up together, learned music together and have been playing together ever since (over ten years) and have been long searching for a drummer who shared their taste and ideals in and for music. Which they have, and far beyond expectations with Steven. Steven Hess is a long standing member of Chicago's underground Avant / Experimental scene and has played with the likes of Greg Davis and Fennesz to name only a few.

On this their first self released ep. Fessenden gives you a taste of the range that you will see at a live show.
The first track "sun5" starts with a beautiful pulsating melody that slowly builds steam to crescendoing industrial sound (not in the NIN or KMFDM sense) and ends with a resonant plea.
The second track "For Those Who Are on a Long Voyage" is quite long, weighing in at almost 17 min. it rewards the patient listener.
its ultra slow textural build gives way to a complex mix of melodic noise mixed with a incredible sense of timing and structure.
Lastly the third track "8.6" is a eerie dissonant structure that harkens to the NYC downtown scene while keeping a freshness all its own. It starts out like as if a evil orchestra is tuning their instruments, and transforms into  a shrill crackling guitar loop, which is then complemented nicely with Steven's disjointed yet fitting drumming and a thumping yet sparse bass line and ends as if a old 78 rpm shellac record is skipping with music that could never have been created in that era.

Fessenden will have at least a couple of Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison dates in the next month or two.
and plan to play NYC, Providence, Boston, VT, Rochester, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and other midwest cities in April-May.
email the members to be put on a mailing list to keep updated on releases and tour dates.

Review by
#it member
Terraform

Again if you like what you hear buy the CD from the band.
It's only $6 (s+h incl.) and goes to support their upcoming north east, mid-west Tour.