Pan American & Kramer played (le) poisson rouge

Earlier this year, Pan American and Kramer teamed-up to release a collaborative record entitled Reverberations of Non-Stop Traffic on Redding Road. On Saturday night, the duo gave the piece its debut performance at New York's (le) poisson rouge.

"Don't think about words. Just LISTEN." That's included on the notes from Kramer on the Bandcamp page for the collaborative album he and Pan American released earlier this year. Spread over twelve tracks, the near hour-long release from the Mark K Nelson (Pan American) and Kramer dives deep into an ambient abyss of droning guitar, fuzzy electronics, field recordings, and some occasional piano as it creates a world of abundant minimalism that oozes with tranquility while also offering up moments of slight tension. Making their live debut as a duo, the two were seated on stage and faced-off as their guitars began to create waves of epic sound that swelled in massive bursts while bits of noise attempted to seep up from within. Following no pattern of rhythm or melody, the two melted their droning riffs into one fused sound that offered surreal contemplation and moments of near-transcendence. If you closed your eyes (as many in attendance did) you could picture frost forming on blades of grass, a creek babbling gently as golden rays of sun pierced through evergreen pine needles, or a flower slowly starting to blossom. Lulling the crowd into deep states of bliss, there was barely a word spoken from the stage as they carried out the piece in one, near fell swoop, breaking only when the audience felt overwhelmed with the need to applause for the rapturous sound the was engulfing the room. The new age and environmental music was backed with drawn out scenes of cobblestones, rockets rising from the earth, and the moon drifting through the clouds, all serene elements that were the perfect background for the meditative trance the two were waft over the crowd. There were times when the music seemed to move at a glacial pace, each note and reverberation from the guitar having its time to shine under the graceful wash of sound. As Kramer would moved to piano, he brought in a new twinkle into the aural journey and paired with the natural elements that were feeding into the mix it created a whole new sonic template that offered even more shine to the already glowing arrangements. When the music finally came to a soft and focused finish, the room came to in a collective state of newfound peace and radiant joy, the music having acted like a balm to sore muscles and an aid to our collective spirits.