This split CD arose from a cross-collaboration between Christian Kiefer and Above the Orange Trees' Jeff Pitcher on their respective 2002 releases. For The Inexplicable Falling, they each contributed a half-hour of new music, including a cover from each other's songbook. Things kick off with ATOT's rendition of Kiefer's touching ballad "Erendira." Pitcher, committed to ornate and complicate the simple melody, doesn't match the intensity of the original version released on Welcome to Hard Times. Five new songs by Pitcher and co. follow. The rather upbeat "Asleep on the Bedroom Floor" provides the sole light moment of the CD. The songs grow gradually darker and more emotional, moving away from alt-rock and toward post-folk, hitting a delicate peak in "For a Ride" and culminating in "I Am Nowhere," a depressive piano ballad that has forgotten ATOT somewhere along the way, leaving Pitcher alone and naked to set the table for what comes next. Kiefer picks up the glove, unfolding through the next seven tracks a revised reading of the 16th century folk ballad "The House Carpenter." More stripped-down and bleak in style than the offerings on his debut album, these songs showcase his vocals over acoustic guitar, banjo, piano, and pump organ (one at a time). Kiefer hints at '60s folk, bluegrass, emo, and more, his melodies and delivery evoking in turn Phil Ochs, Radiohead, and Peter Hammill. The set ends with a ferocious rendition of Pitcher's "Sorry My Love" where the escalation in intensity is well underlined. This album will probably better satisfy Kiefer fans waiting for his next songwriter album than the more experimental and ambient Exodust (nevertheless very good, by the way).
© François Couture /TiVo