Barn Owl - Ancestral Star [Thrill Jockey - 2010]Barn Owl are the San Francisco based duo of Evan Caminiti and Jon Porras, and "Ancestral Star" is the ninth release by this heavy guitar based drone project. The album is as powerful and unstoppable as an ever burning, ancient and immense ball of flame, with the project keeping this almost religious fire burning as they shift between heavy reverb soaked oriental guitar playing and super massive feedback drones. With each new track Caminiti and Porras seem to be ever expanding, pushing their own boundaries and always reaching beyond what they achieved in the previous track The album opens with "Sundown", which draws a pretty gloomy picture with its slow and heavy guitar drones. This is a beautiful opening from where Barn Owl keeps growing in power and passion. The fourth track, bearing the name of the album, is much more open and expressive, with endless guitar drones which reveal more and more musical horizons for the listener to give their attention to. This magical track gives way to even more mystical parts of the album, such as the great "Flatlands" or "Awakening". At this point the drones of Barn Owl seem to be much more lyrical, powerful and warm, and towards the end of the album it seems as if at this point 'Ancestral Star' has gone to even higher spiritual dimensions than where it started, as Caminiti and Porras deepen their musical meditation, making their music even more intoxicating and stirring. Ancestral Star mangers to reach hights that other drone albums fail to reach. The ten tracks can easily take the listener far, far away from everyday life as Caminiti and Porras work their magic together, and gracefully bringing to mind several musical projects, such as Alio Die, Raison d'etre and even Tangerine Dream. The result, in my opinion at least, is breathtaking. Go get this one!   
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