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Artist
Warm Ghost
12+ albums
shoegazeexperimentalsynthpopelectroniccold wave
about
Some images just stick with you; images like Geist und Blutlache, a spare but spooky portrayal of a ghost staring at a pool of blood. Or is it simply a kid wearing a bone white sheet, standing over a crimson-splashed slab of concrete? Whatever the case may be, Paul Duncan was so captivated by Katharina Fritsch’s work that it helped inspire the name of his equally haunting avant-pop project, Warm Ghost. “I was about 11 when I first saw that image in a book my art teacher gave me,” says the longtime singer/multi-instrumentalist (see also: a couple solo albums and collaborations with such varied artists as Oren Ambarchi and members of Grizzzly Bear, Tortoise, and Bear In Heaven). “I thought it was so simple and beautiful.” Duality is also one of the driving forces in Warm Ghost’s debut album, Narrows. On the surface, that means every pop element—the comet-like chords of “G.T.W.S.,” the climactic, synth-chased choruses of “Myths On Rotting Ships”—is offset by an experimental one, from flourishes of field recordings to splintered blocks of beats and samples that suggest a life of listening to Aphex Twin, Autechre and fringe icons like Fennesz, Cluster and Chris & Cosey. “It’s all about making our music more challenging to the ear,” explains Oliver Chapoy. “There is so much happening throughout the songs—little sound bursts, hypnotic rhythms—that help maintain the balance between a typical electronic pop album and an experimental one.” “I made one note to myself before we start
