Damon & Naomi with Ghost
Damon & Naomi with Ghost
A meeting of Damon & Naomi's spare and emotional songwriting with the Japanese band Ghost's densely psychedelic arrangements; reissued by Drag City, LP comes with a bonus 7″
“We first met the Japanese band Ghost in 1995; despite any language barriers, we understood one another immediately and soon became friends. We have since toured together in both the U.S. and Japan, and on occasion Ghost has joined us on stage to play our songs. After a show like this in Tokyo in the fall of 1998, we decided to record an album together. Over the course of the following year, we sent our new songs to Japan, and Ghost sent back ideas for production and arrangements. They also sent music for a new song of theirs, to which we added lyrics. Then, in the last days of 1999 and the first of 2000, Ghost came to our studio to record this album, and celebrate the New Year, together.”— Damon & Naomi, Spring 2000
1. The Mirror Phase
2. The New World
3. Judah and the Maccabees
4. Blue Moon
5. The Great Wall
6. I Dreamed of the Caucasus
7. Don’t Forget
8. Tanka
9. Eulogy to Lenny Bruce
Bonus 7″ (available w/LP only):
Femme Fatale b/w My Flower (Watashi No Hana)
Damon Krukowski – Acoustic guitar, drums, vocals
Naomi Yang – Bass, harmonium, vocals
Masaki Batoh – Acoustic guitar
Michio Kurihara – Electric guitar
Kazuo Ogino – Keyboards
Produced by Damon & Naomi and Masaki Batoh
Arrangements by Kazuo Ogino
Engineered and mixed by Damon Krukowski at Kali Studios
December 1999 — April 2000
Released by Drag City
Praise for Damon & Naomi with Ghost:
“The two groups make sympathetic partners, though few might have guessed that the results would be as subtly gorgeous as Damon & Naomi With Ghost… This slow, hazy, head-in-the-clouds music has a way of leaving sonic cobwebs long after it’s over, the melodies lingering like distant memories.” – The Onion A.V. Club
“Simultaneously evokes the richly textured acoustics of a group like The Incredible String Band and the direct, minimalist simplicity of a band like Low… The album’s centerpiece, the glistening epic of ‘The Great Wall’ (less about China than about spiritual collapse), meanders along for more than eight minutes, picking up bits and pieces of melody, beauty and poetry along the way, finally closing out with a skull-collapsing coda; the result is a magnificent piece that neatly encapsulates what the duo – and this record – is all about.” — MTV
“If the soaring arc of Damon and Naomi’s melodies intersecting with Ghost’s earthly meditations doesn’t bring a tear to your eye, there’s a chance you are already dead. This is mountain-peak listening par excellence.” — Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance)
“PS – And I don’t consider the mountain-peak comment hyperbolic. I have actually listened to this record on a mountain-peak!”