Psycho-Acoustic

AMG Review of Psycho-Acoustic

Rick Anderson
All Music Guide

Downtown guitar and sax legend Elliott Sharp teamed up with avant-garde harpist Zeena Parkins for this wild set of duo improvisations. The results are not for the fainthearted, but will reward those willing to withstand the onslaught of heavily altered and severely distorted string sounds. Sharp spends most of his time playing a double-necked guitar-bass of his own construction, and he creates a monstrous and chaotic sound that, upon close examination, always turns out to be tightly controlled. Parkins' harp is almost never recognizable as such anywhere on this album; like Sharp, she deals in distorted wails and crashes more than in definite pitches. Not everything works perfectly, and there are several moments of what sounds like mere noise-for-noise's-sake. But there are enough high points -- such as the almost-funky "Pinball Logic" and the wonderful harp-and-steel-guitar duet of "Imitations of Life" -- to make this one solidly recommendable.