(La Société Expéditionnaire)

www.la-soc.com

The La Société Expéditionnaire (based in that bustling music mecca of Delaware Water Gap, PA) has quietly been issuing some of the year's most beautiful artifacts of late, among them the new Dragon Turtle LP Almanac (on black/orange vinyl), Lewis & Clarke's "Light Time" 12" EP (starburst pink), and this 12", a split between Dragon Turtle and Goodnight Stars Goodnight Air, limited to just 500 copies and pressed on blue wax with an intriguing halo effect. As is increasingly becoming standard procedure for vinyl releases, a digital download code is included with the record - just in case you want to keep that platter pristine and target it as future eBay fodder!

In truth, though, you'll want to hang on to it.

Dragon Turtle's lone track, the 17 ½-minute "Spill Out the Night," is a wondrously evocative composition bearing subtle suitelike qualities. Initially, one encounters a shoegazey high-end drone; but that soon gives way to a contemplative passage marked by soft, echoey guitar jangles, a metronome-like bass drum pulse and ethereal keys, plus softly muttered (but not indistinct) vocals. The music gradually recedes to near-silence, then around the 12-min. mark the tempo and volume begin to pick up en route to a glorious climax that, with its rich melody, martial/motorik percussion and arpeggiated riffing, suggests some of the more inspiring moments of U2's The Unforgettable Fire. It really is a magnificent track, fully justifying the Brooklyn/PA outfit's self-description as "Ambient-Winter-Calypso-Space-Folk."

Goodnight Stars Goodnight Air, also from PA, fill up their side of the 12" with two tracks, the 11-minute "Subluminal" (that's not a typo) and the 7 ½-minute "Arctic Light." The latter number is laced with the vestigial tendrils of such ambient icons as Stars of the Lid or fretboard maestro Roy Montgomery and, with its series of internal crescendos, may one day prove fruitful fodder for some indie film soundtrack. "Subluminal," though, defies easy description; it's "ambient," sure, but in its icy guitar drones and implied ferocity, there's a foreboding quality that conjures mental images of either hurtling through space or plunging deep into the ocean's abyss, never to be heard from again. Consider the band's chosen name instructive...

Standout Tracks: "Spill Out the Night," "Subluminal" FRED MILLS