Windy & Carl

Today we’re listening to Windy & Carl, a space rock duo consisting of Windy Weber and Carl Hultgren. The husband and wife pair began recording drone music in the early ‘90s, applying echo and reverb effects to distorted, sustained guitar.¹ They’ve put out over a dozen LPs to this day; we’re listening to the two records released by the label Kranky around the turn of the millennium. Depths from 1998 switches between guitar layers and isolated arpeggios, like a collection of longform instrumental shoegaze demos. Consciousness from 2001 uses similar techniques but with a sunnier disposition. “Windy & Carl’s music is like a corona of light surrounding an eclipsed pop song,” wrote Mark Richardson in his appraisal of Depths as one of Pitchfork’s best 50 ambient albums of all time.

Depths - Windy & Carl (70m, light vocals on tracks 5 and 7)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal

Consciousness - Windy & Carl (46m, light vocals on tracks 4 and 5)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal

Have a great Thursday.

1. AllMusic