Recording: Ghostlight

Artist: Ghostlight with Colin Fisher

Songs: Melodies of the Fall #3 [two excerpts]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), September 4, 2019.

Ghostlight - Melodies of the Fall #3 [excerpt 1]

Ghostlight - Melodies of the Fall #3 [excerpt 2]

After his entrancing solo set to start this night, Colin Fisher stayed on the crowded stage area to sit in with Ghostlight as they brought out a new set of four loosely-structured jams.

[Ghostlight will be playing tonight (November 3rd) at Handlebar for Nite Comfort. (Khôra will be performing as well.)]

Recording: Ghostlight

Artist: Ghostlight

Song: I Can Wade Grief [lyrics based on a Emily Dickinson poem]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), March 7, 2018.

Ghostlight - I Can Wade Grief

An evening of psychedelic poetries from the Ghostlights this time around, using found texts (including this one from Dickinson) and some power tools to give shape to their sprawling, exploratory songs.

[Ghostlight are playing seasonally in the Southern Cross this year; their next show will be on Wednesday, June 6th.]

Recording: Ghostlight

Artist: Ghostlight

Song: Macaroni Field [excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Wolf's Nacho Wednesdays), June 1, 2016.

Ghostlight - Macaroni Field [excerpt]

This latest from Ghostlight is something of a work in progress (to what extent depends on which member of the group you speak to) and continues on their recent streak of ambitious, prolific work. Unlike the interactive art of Winter Womb or fog machine spectacle of Future Progress, this is (at least so far) less visually flashy but delves deeper into its concept lyrically.

Examining the life of local boxing great George Chuvalo, this takes a novelistic approach, flashing forward and back through his life — from his childhood in The Junction to the tragedy of losing his family — in a series of "rounds" punctuated by a boxing ring bell. In retrospect, in the light of the passing of his Greatest opponent, this taking-stock felt even more vital and necessary. There's a lot of fertile material here, and room to extend the central boxing ring metaphor, so keep an eye out to see where the crew takes this piece.

[Ghostlight will return to the Tranzac's Nacho Wednesdays — curated by Healing Power's Wolfgang — on August 3rd. And otherwise there's good music on offer (and nacho platters for sale!) every Wednesday.]

Recording: Scott Cameron/Chris Sankey/Michelle Breslin/Brian Abbott

Artist: Scott Cameron/Chris Sankey/Michelle Breslin/Brian Abbott

Song: [first piece]

Recorded at Dundas Video ("Track Could Bend #13"), April 5, 2016.

Scott Cameron/Chris Sankey/Michelle Breslin/Brian Abbott - [first piece]

To my great surprise and delight, Track Could Bend has survived and thrived for a full year. To celebrate, I invited everyone who played the series' first twelve months (more than seventy people!) back for a birthday party. In the end, the night consisted of twenty-seven musicians collaborating over eight short sets, most of which were spontaneous "bands from a hat", drawn by lot before the set started. Given the wide range of musical practices and backgrounds, it was quite exciting to see how much coherence and excellence resulted.

By luck of the draw, this set put together three members of the Ghostlight collective (who had played at TCB#5) with Brian Abbott (TCB#2) so it's not surprising that there was some obvious familiarity between the players. Framed by a spoken-word paraphrase of an incident from Charles Bukowski's Women, this headed into a crisp rock groove, smoothly lumbering down the highway like a '78 Buick.

[The next Track Could Bend will be at Dundas Video on Tuesday, May 3rd, featuring Kosher Dill Spears, Terms Of Venery (Mike Smith, solo electronics) and Glamour Nails (Lina Allemano + Justin Haynes).]

Recording: Ghostlight

Artist: Ghostlight

Song: Rocketship Spaceship Starship

Recorded at Dundas Video (Track Could Bend #5), August 4, 2015.

Ghostlight - Rocketship Spaceship Starship

Exploring some further Future Progress, the Ghostlight collective obscured the room in fog, only their helmet-lamps — oh, and their wall of noise — piercing through. Floating on top of it all was Micheal Baumgart's poetry, providing the vibe for each piece before it build up into a squall that got heavier than things were last time around.

Recording: Ghostlight

Artist: Ghostlight

Song: The Lost Trail

Recorded at Handlebar (Nite Comfort 22), June 7, 2015.

Ghostlight - The Lost Trail

You might not have noticed, but Ghostlight are on a roll right now, revitalized and pumping out sounds'n'ideas at a commendable pace. After a period of relative quietude they have a lot to get out their system, and every show is coming with a whole new visual concept — and the past couple shows have doubled as the release party for an EP of the tunes they performed that night. This special presentation at Nite Comfort saw them bringing some Future Progress — containing sonic settings for Michael Baumgart's poetry on the musical side, while filling the bar with fog to craft a visual spectacle that can best be described, as, ah, ghost light. Wonderfully inventive, and a reminder that you don't need a huge budget to do something really creative.

[Nite Comfort is also on a roll, and their next couple shows stand to be pretty great events. Sunday, July 5th will being a night of dark ambient stylings from Northumbria and F A V X.]

Recording: Ghostlight

Artist: Ghostlight

Song: The Winter Womb [excerpt]

Recorded at Wavelength Pop Up @ Huntclub Studio (Wavelength 640), February 1, 2015.

Ghostlight - The Winter Womb [excerpt]

It'd been awhile since I saw free-range psych collective Ghostlight in action, so it was a thrill to see them taking on perhaps the most ambitious project I've seen 'em tackle. The Winter Womb was ambiguously billed as "a multi-media performance evoking the darkness of Arctic hysteria evolving into the midnight sun". That turned out to involve streamers and balloons acting as a broken screen for abstract projections, as well as an action painting component. The latter was used not only in the fabrication of CD covers that were distributed to the audience at the show's end, but also as part of the soundworld, with the clank of paint brushes against metal bowls being looped as a percussive element. The piece mostly involved slowly-building ambiance, emerging from the "womb" with a driving krautrock jam before finishing with a version of "I Just Feel Fine" by Ghostlight's alter-ego band Mean Red Spiders. Excellent stuff, and hopefully the band will find an opportunity to re-mount this performance.

Recording: Ghostlight

Artist: Ghostlight

Song: The Door of No Return [excerpt]

Recorded at The Magpie Taproom (The Door of No Return Residency – week 1), July 4, 2012.

Ghostlight - The Door of No Return [excerpt]

Full review to follow. A very satisfying night out for the beginning of Ghostslight's July residency at The Magpie. They'll be there every Wednesday, and it's worth checking out. Next week features a set from Not the Wind, Not the Flag, who are simply one of the city's best bands, plus some other surprises are promised.

Recording: Ghostlight

Artist: Ghostlight

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Garrison (ELEVEN: The Wavelength 11th Anniversary Festival), February 20, 2011.

Ghostlight - unknown

My notes for this set can be found here.

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!

Recording: Ghostlight

Artist: Ghostlight

Song: Gibraltar Point Lighthouse Piece [excerpt]

Recorded at Artscape Gibraltar Point (ALL CAPS! Island Show), October 17, 2009.

Ghostlight - Gibraltar Point Lighthouse Piece

My notes for this set can be found here.