Alasdair Roberts and Charalambides November 2, 2007

End of an Empire Presents:

Alasdair Roberts (Drag City)
Charalambides (Kranky, Wholly Other)
plus, Heather Leigh Murray

$10. All ages.

Scottish songwriter Alasdair Roberts' career as a recording artist sprung into a critically lauded, cult-praised profession when a demo he made with his group Appendix Out found its way into the hands of Will Oldham (Palace, Bonnie Prince Billy). Oldham identified with Appendix Out's sound enough that he released their first recording, the 7" titled Ice Age/Pissed with You, on his own Palace Records label in 1996. The momentum from this release led to a recording contract with Chicago indie label Drag City. After Appendix Out's third release for the label, released in February 2001, Roberts immediately recorded and released his first solo album, released on Secretly Canadian and titled The Crook of My Arm. Roberts later followed with his second solo release, Farewell Sorrow, which garnered more critical acclaim and showcased the development of his songwriting with, its deep roots in the British and Scottish folk traditions. The stark and beautiful No Earthly Man arrived in 2005, followed by the more band-oriented Amber Gatherers in 2007.

"Delivered with an impish playfulness, beautiful Hebridean blues picking and an antiquarian's ear for medieval imagery, the whole album [The Amber Gatherers] fells like some beguilingly beautiful charm against modern evils, with some of the sweetest sung songs you'll hear all year." ~ MOJO

http://alasdairroberts.com/
http://www.dragcity.com/press/press.html/

To apply the words "unique" and "singular" to the sounds created by the various duo/trio configurations of the Texas group Charalambides over the last decade plus would be understatement. To be sure there are numerous antecedents to their music, but they have surely broken new ground in the primitive/ folk/mystic/improv/psych valley in which they toil. As Marcus Boon wrote in The Wire; "...here is a truly 21st century experimental ethnic music that explores quietness and stasis... in the same way that musicians in the second half of the 20th century discovered amplification, noise and speed."

"Tom and Christina Carter here again showcase their seemingly innate ability to lock into a shared orbit across the darkening sky, their luminous drift scaled down to its essential, irreducible core." - Pitchforkmedia review of 2005's A Vintage Burden

http://www.kranky.net/artists/charalambides.html
http://www.wholly-other.com/

Official Website: http://bulkerase.blogspot.com