Count on Eyvind Kang to take his time and shed his skin before completing a new album. Live Low to the Earth, in the Iron Age has for a starting point the title track of his 2000 album, The Story of Iceland, and takes a tangent path that leads somewhere between post-rock country and uncharted ambient country lands. The fact that the album came out on Abduction -- home of the Sun City Girls -- instead of John Zorn's label, Tzadik, tells some of the tale, the only part of it listeners will know. Liner notes are minimal, limited to track titles and the mentioned "composed and performed by EK & Neti-Neti Band." Things start with a droning piece, Heads on Red Lakes Return. Violin and feedback guitar mesh to form a peaceful soundscape and there seems to be overdubs involved. The main piece is the 27-minute BINAH. The first half consists of a simple, country-tinged post-rock melody repeated endlessly on guitar, while violin and bass drone away (not tiresome at all; in fact, it's beautiful). Halfway through, the momentum shifts to let Kang's violin step to the front and solo Henry Flynt-style while the surroundings dissolve. Highlands is the only track with drums (there is only a bit of percussion in the other tunes) and it takes the form of freestyle lo-fi rock. The title piece has guitar, violin, bass, and organ playing a drone while an electric guitar solos slowly. This is a peaceful album, ambient with a midlands twist, much more unassuming and improvised than Kang's previous albums -- less impressive, but wasn't that the point? ~ François Couture, Rovi

1		Heads on Red Lakes Return
2		Binah
3		Highlands
4		Live Low to the Earth, In the Iron Age

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