Iker Garmendia & Matthew Nowik - ‘Tis A Fearful Thing
Released: January 28 In what is ostensibly their first collaborative album, Iker Garmendia and Matthew Nowik utilize four track of multi-instrumental improvisation to explore the subject of thanatophobia - the fear of losing our loved ones. While you would expect a rather dark collection of music, it avoids this over-focus on morbidity in favor of something that is not exactly light but not a depressing slog either. Instead, there is strangely mystical quality to everything here, likely due to the combination of Iker’s penchant for odd folk instruments and Nowik’s propensity towards abstract noises built from the leftover sounds of the world. It comes across as atmospheric but also rather mythical at the same time as lyres, flutes, and other instruments play about over a canvas of found sound. Being only four tracks, there is quite a bit packed into each one with the title track being the longest of the pack. “‘Tis a fearful thing” moves quite slowly at first with that omnip...
