OTHER REVIEWS / CRITIQUE of COMMUNION (live shows, etc):
"An Ear to an Atmosphere" (scene review) by Jennifer Barnes
...One of the best things about our scene [Greater Washington D.C. area] is it's diversity and communion is a good example of that. They aren't quite like any other band out there. What makes communion's music different is the way they create it, [through] live improvisation. So everything about the band is necessarily loose and fluid. For instance, band members come and go, anyone who can add something to the music is welcome. During a typical communion session one person may start off and the others will eventually join in.
Right now there are five members of communion. Their fearless leader is . . . 0110 (the 1's [one's] are pronounced as l's[el's]). He once told me that he enjoyed playing with numbers but now the numbers are playing with him. I think the same concept applies to communion's music when at times the music seems to be playing the people. It's often hard to tell what exactly is going on in a communion song. When I saw them play 0110 was doing vocals and lots of knob-twisting effects. Anthony was also doing some vocals and electro-gadget magic. Six was behind the keyboards and Margaret added some spoken-word type vocals while Fleeky handled the percussion.
But describing what the members are doing does not begin to describe the music. It is dark and atmospheric. Some songs have a sequenced base while others are total improvisation. The music is always intense and overwhelming. It provides a fertile field for your imagination and it's up to you to see what grows there. I gues what I'm trying to say is you'd be better off hearing it rather than reading my description.
communion has been around for about [two] years now and they have several releases including "Through Dreams of Reckless Sleep" and "Their Despair in Gentle Things". Both are 90 minutes of communion's live experimentations. This may seem a little excessive but there's so much going on in the music that it would be difficult to find it boring. Although communion is a live project they take their music seriously and are talented at it. You may be thinking that anyone can get a bunch of electronic equipment and play with the knobs but the question is can they make it interesting, and communion does just that.
Currently, communion is working on recording a half-hour live set that will be played on an Arlington [Virginia] cable station. I attended one of their practices to witness "spontaneous generation" in person. It was very cool and totally unpretentious. communion is an excellent name for the band because it is all about communication and drawing others into the music. Actually I can't think of anything better to do on a Sunday night than sit in 0110's basement in the dark and let the music wash over me. Even live experimentation can be improved with practice and the band has definitely gotten better since their previous recordings. The good news is that they are in the final stages of putting out their next tape which is called "Translucid" . . . communion wants to play as many shows as possible from private parties to clubs, it does not matter.
The above review was originally published in "Melodia", vol. 03, #10, September 1996.
