Joy for me can be summarized by the existence of things like the new Duane Pitre/Pilotram Ensemble LP, ?Organized Pitches Occurring in Time.?

To begin with, it?s on vinyl, a nice heavy slab of it. Great start. Furthermore, the album artwork is phenomenal. It?s simple. A delicately intricate, finely brushed painting of flowers and organic swirls, done in two horizontally lined chunks, divided by basic project information. Beautiful.

Beyond that, and most importantly, this is a release, consisting of two long tracks, that simply hits all the right buttons for me.

This is a drone record. There is plenty of droning to be had, plenty of hypnotic, hallucinatory, and trance inducing drones that envelop you in their surprisingly dense textural quality residing below the tranquil surface.

The two tracks are built upon a framework, rigidly controlled, by its creator, Duane Pitre. From this regimented base, the ensemble goes forth improvising over the score and taking the piece into new and uncharted terrain. There is a stylistic clarity running through both pieces, but each side of this record stands alone as an intensely beautiful work in its own right. Which, to be honest, is the point. This is work with a built in life support system, and reinventing it every time they play it, the Pilotram Ensemble are able to breath a ton of new life into every interpretation of Pitre?s groundwork.

This is the sort of album that will be on my turntable for days to come, and whose sleeve will never leave the side of my speakers for months.

Beautiful, stark, highly effective, and austerely compelling, ?Organized Pitches Occurring In Time? is a genuinely brilliant release. 10/10 -- John Cramer (21 January, 2008)