The Culper Ring is a local super group of sorts. It’s Kris Force (Amber Asylum), Mason Jones (Subarachnoid Space), and Steve Von Till (Neurosis). What you get when you combine these three whose bands have drastically different sounds is a mostly beautiful mix of vocals, violin, guitar, and ambient guitar drones. There is very little percussion and most of it is instrumental. These tracks are also taken from jam sessions between the three and well; they don’t feel like songs as much as they feel like combinations of sounds. Most of it is slow and dark and dare I even say some of the Goth from Amber Asylum comes through.

1. Pretty guitar, vocals’ making pretty sounds but it doesn’t sound like there are words, slow violin, and ambient guitar sounds that don’t sound like a guitar. Male vocals come in and do sing words. At one point I thought I channeled Dead Can Dance.

2. Short. Violin, a few vocals, and ambient guitar feedback.

**3. Pretty, simple, clean, guitar and violin mostly. There are electronic sounds thrown in and even some found sounds or non-instrument sounds. Kris is a sound engineer I think.

**4. Sounds from a relatively quiet street and someone whistling. Some dark ambient sounds creep in. Sounds very much like SF on a quiet night.

5. A continuation of track 4. But then very clear and clean guitar playing individual notes very slowly. (??). There are female vocals in the background. Eventually the track becomes mostly the guitar. Male vocals come in for the last 2 minutes or so.

6. More sad guitar but with some discordant drones and female vocals way in the background.

7. A bass?? The track gets fairly quiet in the middle but eventually the bass comes rumbling back.

**8. Nice arpeggiated guitar playing with heavily effected male vocals and pretty female vocals. Ends very electronic sounding. Reminds me of some Legendary Pink Dots.

Really good stuff. -mph