The Harp Factory on Lake Street

The Harp Factory on Lake Street
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EP by Gastr del Sol
Released	1995
Recorded	November 14, 1994
Studio
Label	Table of the Elements
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Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"The Harp Factory on Lake Street"	17:12

Background

Promo material

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  Poster
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Reviews

CMJ New Music Report

July 3, 1995

The ambitious, but tortoise-paced Table Of The Elements label [...] is showing signs of life again, delivering the first in a series of specially-priced CD EPs (EPs have the same fixed manufacturing costs as full-length CDs, so unfortunately, the prices aren't all that "special"). The inaugural release is The Harp Factory On Lake Street by Gastr del Sol, a very interesting development for the Chicago group, which is augmented here by a small ensemble. This 17-minute David Grubbs/Jim O'Rourke composition features some very familiar and pleasant piano/voice and acoustic guitar sounds from Grubbs, nicely contrasted with with an extremely dense brass/bass clarinet fog and the resonance of shimmering vibraphone.

AllMusic

The Harp Factory on Lake Street is an intentional departure from Gastr del Sol's main line of work -- aside from the formality of a name change, it could almost be considered a one-off side project. The record consists of one 17-minute orchestral composition, recruiting various Chicago musicians (Jeb Bishop, John McEntire, Bob Weston) to create a decidedly abstract and ambient work from largely traditional instruments. The result is sparse and unstructured and times, and adopts a wall-of-sound approach at others; some of David Grubbs' melodic piano work emerges at points as well. The Harp Factory on Lake Street may not be of much interest to those who enjoy the pop aspects of Gastr del Sol's other work, but it fits well with the more experimental work of Chicago's post-rock and avant-jazz musicians.

CMJ New Music Monthly

January 1996

Franklin Bruno

[...] Gastr's current release, The Harp Factory On Lake Street (Avant), is its least rock-derived and most ambitious yet, a single, 17-minute track supplemented by nine other musicians. [...] Harp Factory (a reference to the Lyon-Healey building on Chicago's South Side, one of a handful of American harp manufacturers) dispenses with the rock-band format altogether. A quiet acoustic figure introduces the piece, only to be drowned out by a sustained orchestral blast from the entire ensemble, which includes, among others, bass clarinetist Gene Coleman, Shellac bassist Bob Weston (on trumpet), and McEntire again, this time playing synth. Through overdubbing, just nine individual musicians perform up to 60 parts during these sections.

Although most of this music is composed ("If I want to improvise, I can go play at the bookstore around the corner," says O'Rourke), "composition" here has a wider meaning than the European classical tradition would allow. "Some composed sections have pretty loose parameters," explains Grubbs. "We'll sit on these chords or choose between a couple of chords, or improvise using these several pitches for x amount of time... I tend to write out instructions for myself. People have said, 'I'd love to see your graphic scores,' and they're these little junior legal pads." O'Rourke concurs: "Traditional notation is nothing. I could spend hours notating every detail of a part, or I could just tell someone like [bass clarinetist and frequent sideman] Gene Coleman, and he'll get exactly the same thing faster, and he'll probably play it better. The people that I write for, I know how they play, and they know how I write." [...]