Gazebo Effect

Cameron Stallone's work as Sun Araw has progressively drifted further from the beach-fried, dubby psych-rock permutations of his early releases on Not Not Fun and Woodsist, gradually becoming more influenced by new age and early electronic music experiments. Initially a solo project, Sun Araw has increasingly become a collaborative effort, especially in a live setting, and 2015's double-LP Gazebo Effect is credited to S. Araw "Trio" XI (the other two contributors being Alex Gray and Mitchell Brown). The album follows two more ambitious double albums, the under-appreciated 2013 self-titled debut by Celebrate Music Synthesizer Group and 2014's Belomancie, possibly the most out-there Sun Araw recording yet. Gazebo Effect features extended group improvisations for guitar, synthesizer, saxophone, and tape. Two of the double album's seven tracks take up an entire side of vinyl, and two more are over ten minutes in length. The album is a heady, patience-demanding excursion into warped electro-acoustic jazz, careening through buzzing synth washes, fragmented psychedelic guitar lines, fluttering sax bleats, and fluid tape manipulations. The album seems to deconstruct a lot of the elements of past Sun Araw compositions, spacing them out and abstracting them rather than letting them rhythmically blend and harmonize with each other. The result is a relentlessly trippy and experimental work which only momentarily hints at accessibility with the detached synth-funk melody of the brief "Rebuttal." As alien and disconcerting as Gazebo Effect might seem, it's a bewildering and sometimes mind-boggling listen which abundantly rewards its adventurous listeners. ~ Paul Simpson