The Harp Factory on Lake Street

The Harp Factory on Lake Street
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EP by Gastr del Sol
Released	August 1, 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

• Mentioned in January 1995: "[Gastr del Sol is] working on a CD for Table Of The Elements (who will also release the new Faust album)"

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.

The Root of Twinkle

Summer 1995

Eva

This seventeen minute EP is separated into two sections. The first begins with a quiet acoustic guitar, which is then quickly interrupted by the shrill screeches and honks of violins, a bass clarinet and a cello. This foreshadowing of sorts crescendos and then immediately drops off, but not for long. The guitar barely has a moment to establish a melody for a second time when the barrage begins again, softly at first, with atonal blasts and bursts of trumpet, trombone, strings and woodwind. The instruments follow one another in a cycle or round almost, which suggests to me the deep and smothered sounds of a foghorn, or dark clouds rolling in a sea. The toots and bellows come to the point where if you happen to be listening to it in the car in a part of town where everyone's in the Navy, they're all like, "What the hell are you listening to?" During the second half of the EP, which is my favorite and all piano and keyboard and vocals, I like to think of David Grubbs' little white fingers playing the keys of his piano, so slowly and determined; 'The teapot went crimson, then purple and black then back...," and then dissolving into a languorous seven minutes of after dinner drinks and dim light, soft trails of smoke and focus, and sleepy dreams, both good and bad...

Revue & Corrigée

September 1995

Un petit disque par la durée qui a l'air d'un grand, par son format. Écoutons donc cette composition pour orchestre écrite et produite par Jim O'Rourke et David Grubbs. Le doute n'est pas permis, nos deux héros ont réalisé une oeuvre de musique contemporaine. celle qui est si difficile à vendre, même quand leurs auteurs s'appellent, par exemple, Morton Feldman. Ou Satie à son époque, et même Debussy. C'est, selon moi plus intéressant que ce que je connaissais du duo, sans pour autant que le résultat ne puisse faire apparaître un discours nouveau. Ce sont les mêmes que l'on a entendu avec red Krayola. Ils ont donc du talent, ou un savoir faire très développé. Ce qui pourrait être important, c'est la mise à disposition au plus grand nombre, d'une culture et d'une intelligence. Je ne peux que les apprécier pour cela, et pourtant je demeure plus que perplexe sur la démarche. Esthétique plutôt poussiéreuse et effects datés. Revoir unpeu ce qu'il s'est passé depuis 1960 en matière de recherche (et de trouvalle) musicale. Désolé: dans la famile vessies et lanternes, Jim et david ont oublié le pétrole.

AllMusic

Nitsuh Abebe

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." [...]

March 1996

In our January issue, we misidentified the label of Gastr Del Sol's The Harp Factory on Lake Street — it's actually on Table Of The Elements.

The Great Alternative & Indie Discography

1999

[...] Never one to shirk a challenge, Grubbs (and some local friends/musicians) took it upon himself to create a mini-orchestral suite scored to the usual freeform rules, the resulting 17-minute long 'Harp Factory On Lake Street' (1995), taking the post-rock ethos into uncharted territory [...]