High Places

Wikipedia:

High Places is a band originating from Brooklyn, NY, recently relocated to Los Angeles, CA. The band is a duo comprising multi-instrumentalist Rob Barber and vocalist Mary Pearson.

History

Pearson and Barber met while Mary was completing a music degree in bassoon performance at Western Michigan University and Rob was working in visual art, teaching lithography and etching in New York. Both were performing as solo musicians at the time, Mary as Transformation Surprise, and Rob as the Urxed. The two began collaborating under the name High Places in May 2006, after Mary relocated to New York.

The duo played their first show in may 2006 in North Adams MA, with Japanther, after Rob, who was scheduled to play solo, didn't want to perform alone. A few weeks later they finished a six song demo CD-R, and left for their first US tour. They released a number of singles while contributing songs to a few compilations.

In the Summer of 2008, the duo signed with Chicago label Thrill Jockey Records. Their early singles and varied works were collected and released in July 2008 as 03/07-09/07, and their debut S/T full length followed in September 2008.

High Places tours almost constantly, and have toured with such notable bands such as Deerhunter, No Age, Abe Vigoda, the Blow, Ponytail, Soft Circle, Lucky Dragons, Yacht, Dan Deacon, and Hawnay Troof.

Process

High Places' overall sound consists of bass-heavy yet crisp beats, lilting vocal melodies, syncopated rhythmic lines performed on folk percussion instruments, guitar duets turned into treated samples, and percussive lines created from the manipulation of household objects. The duo has an “exquisite corpse” style of songwriting where they exchange ideas back and forth, challenging each other's ideas in an organic way.

In a live setting, the band creates their layered recordings with Mary singing and simultaneously manipulating her vocals with various delay and reverb pedals, while playing some hand percussion, recorders, and creating and controlling various loops. Rob handles the music, triggering a variety of percussive sounds with sampling drum pads and traditional samplers, as well as various percussion, wooden blocks with contact mics, and singing some ambient vocals.

High Places’ self-titled debut was recorded by Rob and Mary in their apartment in Brooklyn’s Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood between January and May 2008. In making the album they employed a wide variety of instruments, including 12 string guitar, banjo, shakers and rattles, bass, bells and Kalimba, as well as plastic bags, mixing bowls, wood blocks and other common household objects. Rob created the High Places artwork by using photos taken by both band members.