As Is Stated... Before Known is Ernesto and Chris' fourth duo recording, and once again features Ernesto on acoustic and Chris on electric guitar. This may be their most subtle, and consequently most demanding album yet. It's always amazes me how adept these guys are at pure sound creation. The opening track features the acoustic guitar laying down a rolling, droning ambient drift, while Chris colors the music with rumbles and groans. "Tomorrow" is a highlight on which Ernesto's strumming creates a sort of avant-garde Shoegazer feel. The tension builds as Chris uses the strumming groove as the canvas to paint little sonic nuggets of electric guitar manipulation. And the boys get a bit into space on "Six Years", with it's dark atmospherics and head throbbing pulsations. But it's the quiet, understated melodic-dissonance of the album that grabbed me on most of these tracks. My favorites consist of Ernesto doing his textural acoustic magic as a foundation for Chris' string scratchings and various other techniques. Just dig that fluttering sensation he creates during "On A Morning Five Years Ago". "Some Years Since" is a bit different, if only because Chris decides to take off for a while and do some nimble dancing about the fretboard. As usual, these guys excel at exploring sound and the possibilities of what can be communicated through their stringed instruments.

The duo recording with Ernesto Diaz-Infante (on acoustic guitar) is made up of eleven pieces of relatively short length that do, in fact, come off as “songs.” There’s just enough of a hint of rhythm and of recurring structure, not to mention a fairly soft-edged attack, that you can barely imagine a vocal emerging from the haze. Often, effects are dropped, as on the lovely “how little observed…half a mile distant” and the two wander briefly into Loren Connors territory, strumming as gently as they are off-kilter, evoking an enchanting avant-folk sensibility. Forsyth is just as likely to intentionally throw sand into the gears, interjecting staticky pops and crackles, a healthy gambit lest things get too smooth. A little Fahey sneaks in too, especially in some of the more languid pieces like “some years since,” where Diaz-Infante acts as quasi-tambura to Forsyth’s more abstract explorations. The longest song, “some weeks of close scrutiny” is perhaps also the strongest, a very attractive balance achieved between pastoral, acoustic ruminations and granular, “a-musical” electronics. (as is stated…before known) is a fine, understated album, one that should appeal to listeners fond of the abovementioned musicians as well as, say, Burkhard Stangl.

Perhaps the best duo disc yet from these great guitar grinders, Forsyth electric and Diaz-Infante acoustic. The opener, “The Sun Is Shining,” is not the Bob Marley tune. This sun’s brilliance comes from a grated guitar drone, with skronk percussion detonations. “how little is observed...half a mile distant” features strummed guitar, abstract with a tinge of folk influence, with the electric guitar’s sparse commentary. The eleven tracks are well sequenced, varied in mood, the listener’s interest never flagging. This reminds one that music can be hypnotic without needing to trance, drone or trip. For guitar lovers who know only Frissell, Chadbourne, Bailey, Mazzacane Connors, Licht, and the Sonic Youth boys, I highly recommend this disc for a taste of some other aspects of what guitars can do. The recording by Willis Bown and mix by Jaime Fennelly is rich and visceral; one hears and feels all the texture, color and overtones. (as is stated...before known) will encourage you to seek out their other discs, my favorite perhaps being their Wires and Wooden Boxes. (Note that several of Diaz-Infante’s discs are solo piano, and sparse like the desert. One must be patient.) Both performers travel a lot, so look for them in your town

Eleven more collaborations from these experts in modified guitar nuances. Ernesto plays acoustic guitar and Chris plays electric guitar, not that you'd recognize them half the time, thanks to unknown modifications of said instruments, unorthodox methods of "playing," and a southern-sized helping of efx processing. The beginning track, "the sun is shining," frequently sounds more like insects buzzing around a grunting rhino; the final track, "six years," sounds like bells chiming over the hum of telephone wires. In between they manage to evoke the sounds of a heavily-reverbed piano ("how little observed... half a mile distant") reverberating in slo-mo and the percussive sound of tuned drums and droning wires ("i once carried... from time to time"). Their methods of attack vary, although they have a tendency to interact, then drift apart, especially on "one afternoon last year." You can hear the ghost of John Fahey reverberating around in the hollow spaces of Ernesto's restrained and near-tentative stabs at melody in "on a morning five years ago (touched my trembling ears)," even as Chris destroys them with odd sounds and textures. Similar in style and (probably) execution as their first collaboration, but gentler and more contemplative, perhaps. Excellent, as always.