FWS is a guitar duo who has been going on for quite a few years, self-releasing an album in 1998, and apparently building themselves quite a reputation live in the meantime.

What is striking is the wide variety of genres covered by FWS on Solace. Each song is different, and they go from ambient guitars à la SOTL to works closer to Labradford to electronic ambient soundscapes to tracks sounding like some Einstürzende Neubauten experimentation to pieces more straightforwardly melodic. Some would say they are quite close to Flying saucer attack.

The technique varies too: guitar with and without effects, treated or not, drones, electronics, synths… Overall, the mood is rather contemplative, almost trance inducing, soundscapes creating an impression of actually seeing an arid landscape, a desert. Some of the tracks are more abrasive, but the album remains quiet, meditative. Although some of the melodies they play would pierce right through the heart of anybody and leave him sad and confused, FWS don’t really allow the tracks to last as long as necessary for that to happen, which is a bit of a shame, if you ask me. I actually think that with the amount of ideas used on this album, they could easily have recorded three different and excellent albums, developing further everything they did on Solace.

It’s funny, cause I just finished reading Denis Johnson’s Already Dead (fabulous novel) and, although the story takes place in northern California, I would consider Solace as the perfect soundtrack to the most bizarre pages of this rather weird book, full of PoMo witches, estranged cops, despairing young rich men, and a whole catalogue of odd characters.

Each summer brings its nice, unsuspected surprises. Last year, it was hot temperature. So far in 2004, it’s Fires were shot. Perhaps because it’s more of an autumn album, echoing perfectly the kind of weather I can admire from where I sit?