Pareidolia by BBJR

"Bob Bucko Jr. has spent the last several years establishing himself as a widely varied experimental artist. His output is consistently engaging and eclectic, while somehow never pulling the same punch twice.

‘Pareidolia’ will be a welcome addition to those already familiar with BBJR’s catalog, and a wonderful introduction for those just discovering the artist’s work. The album explores free jazz, experimental and ambient noise, and even ventures off into tribal and Western music sounds. Album opener “Ancient Wings” is a beautiful, yet minimal composition that explores free jazz saxophone combined with ambient electronic and chanting that has a deeply meditative quality. “(Wherever I'm At Is) Home for Now” has a much more aggressive and driving industrial noise theme, offsetting the tones and emotions set forth on the opener. “My Magic is a Mess” pulls in themes from both of its predecessors – an ambient, yet ominous number that eventually erupts into electric guitar, sax and noise. “(Maybe I'm the One) Who's Nuts” is uniquely somber, yet more upbeat than the rest of the album. The sounds and instrumentation on this track are the most experimental and exploratory on the record and resolves the album with a sense of freedom and passion.

‘Pareidolia’ is a dynamic and breathtaking album that has much to offer - fans of free jazz, experimental guitar, harsh noise and even electronica will all find much to enjoy."
- Joshua Tabbia, Already Dead Tapes, 2016

"My familiarity with BBJR, aka Bob Bucko Jr. of Personal Archives fame, has been limited to his releases as guitar/drums jazz freakout duo Sex Funeral (with Matt Crowe) and his more abstract solo material, so it was with great surprise and joy that PAREIDOLIA conformed to none of my preconceptions about Bucko’s work. Tapping into mad psych and towering interstellar ambient, BBJR punches holes in space-time with guitar and sax alike until he’s created, like, a bunch of new black holes. I can’t even count them, it seems as if they just appear throughout PAREIDOLIA. Not surprising, then, is the density of these compositions, each a heavy isotope (not to be confused with a heavy metal, of course) that will decay as soon as it ends, with radioactive material all that remains. So, a public service announcement: wear lead suits when listening! Anyway, there’s lots to love here for the psychic space traveler, ready to wrap your mind around concepts that make very little sense on Earth. Each of these four astral blasts explore the outer regions of the mind and the universe and make connections of one to the other as if it were as simple as direct observation – no complicated mathematics required. BBJR clearly imposes patterns and ideas on PAREIDOLIA that make perfect sense when all is complete. Wait, I’m getting a message here … seems as though “pareidolia” is a phenomenon where order is perceived when there actually is none. So … I was probably way off on suggesting that Bob Bucko is some sort of theoretical genius. Still, he’s pretty good at this improv stuff, and it’s not TOO crazy to impose some order upon it … is it?"
- Ryan Masteller, Cassette Gods, 2017


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