Christina Carter “Like A Bayou To Its Gulf” cassette (Bud Tapes)

Texas-based Christina Carter is a legend of free and deeply personal expression through music. You may know her from her 33 years on the scene playing in groups such as Charalambides, Obscuress, Lunar Muse, Doll Dreams, or the long list of features she’s had on releases across the musical spectrum. Her new album, Like a Bayou To Its Gulf, is the result of sessions with Carter’s collaborator in Lunar Muse, Alistair Lingren, in the co-producer chair. This is first time Carter has allowed someone into that role for a solo release. For the last 10 years or so Carter’s solo work has consisted of mostly vocal only improvisations, so the addition of guitar here is a call back to when she was touring the country and playing guitar almost everyday. The lyrics here were originally composed for a live performance that then were reinterpreted in the studio into sprawling, multitracked bliss. Carter’s vocal delivery is the closest that vocals have brought me to the feeling I experience with instrumental free music. The range of emotion, physicality, and human experience she is able to pack into her vocal performance is absolutely unparalleled. The multitracked recording process allows Carter’s vocals to stack and interact with each-other along with the variety of textures and tones she pulls from her guitar. The opening poem recited aloud while Carters vocals are slowly pitched down comes off like an incantation. The listener descends into Carter’s lyrical world. Like A Bayou To Its Gulf, seems to get at the ideal of song; symbols and meaning that are at the same time deeply personal yet universal; deeply moving, yet grounding and perspective giving. Song for Carter seems to come simultaneously from deeply within as well as from outside herself, pulling from her surroundings and beyond, absorbing influence from the unknown.