BLEU, DORA, TOM CARTER & SAM SHALABI - Circle of Crosses

The Hill of Crosses in Siauliai, Lithuania (56_Ǭ_0055N 23_Ǭ_2500E) is one of the most demented folk-art installations on the planet, a thicket of 100,000+ crosses, crucifixes, graven images, minor effigies, rosaries and other pilgrim-offerings dating back almost 200 years and maybe longer. It is a monument to accretion, to the endless addition of one more thing. It has its parallels in the votive-stuffed caves of Arkalochori (35_Ǭ_ 8 0.76N, 25_Ǭ_ 15 26.94"E) and Psychro (35.1628055_Ǭ_N 25.4448972_Ǭ_E), as well as the Buddha-stuffed caves of Mogao (40_Ǭ_0217.98N 94_Ǭ_4815.28E), Bezeklik (42_Ǭ_ 57 22 N, 89_Ǭ_ 32 41 E), and Pak Ou (20.0489_Ǭ_N 102.2101_Ǭ_E). At this Hill of Crosses, one rubs up against what Aliferis has called das _É_ìberw_ɬ§ltigensein (_¢‚Ǩ_ìthe overwhelm_¢‚Ǩ¬ù) in one of its many forms. In the past, human encounters with the overwhelm were always described in religious terms: a glimpse into the abyss that staggers human speech, and our need to fill that void with a force that eclipses human measure; that is to say, God. But in 2012, our horror vacui has replaced God with ourselves, and the overwhelm we face is a socially constructed one, of endless surveillance and information-gathering, where everywhere is the same and anywhere is nowhere, and where the principle of too-muchness prevails unceasingly: _¢‚Ǩ_ìLabour unparallelld! a wondrous rocky World of cruel destiny / Rocks piled on rocks reaching the stars; stretching from pole to pole._¢‚Ǩ¬ù_¢‚Ǩ¬®_¢‚Ǩ¬®Clearly we have lost our bearings. Clearly the need is for something on a smaller scale. Clearly we must reclaim the void. To that end, Fire Museum (39.955117_Ǭ_N 75.161240_Ǭ_W) and Tequila Sunrise Records (39.969203_Ǭ_N 75.14505_Ǭ_W) present this gathering of guitar-driven emanations, the first side leafy, lyrical and acoustic, the second side an astringent application of electric gnarl. _¢‚Ǩ_ìCircle of Crosses_¢‚Ǩ¬ù brings together folk pythia Dora Bleu (guitar and vocal) with psych-improv wizards Sam Shalabi and Tom Carter (guitars and other instruments). It links Tripoli (32_Ǭ_548N 13_Ǭ_119E) to Washington D.C (38_Ǭ_5342.4N 77_Ǭ_0212.0W) and Houston (29_Ǭ_4546N 95_Ǭ_2259W), not to mention Mile End (45_Ǭ_3130N 73_Ǭ_3500W) to Louvain-la-Neuve (50_Ǭ_ 40 4 N, 4_Ǭ_ 36 42 E). Consider these songs map coordinates for safe-houses from das _É_ìberw_ɬ§ltigensein, a set of precise locales for ecstasy, atheist shrines, or open spaces for reverie in the forgotten recesses of the planetary connectome._¢‚Ǩ¬®" - John Cleves Symmes, Jr., Tequila Sunrise.