No Wave guitar legend, Sonic Youth founder, and Chelsea Light Moving frontman Thurston Moore has got a highly experimental Record Store Day gift in mind for serious collectors of avant-garde artifacts. On April 20, New York’s Northern Spy Records will release The Only Way to Go Is Straight Through, featuring two live collaborations between Moore and 63-year-old blues-warping guitar guru Loren Connors.
The release comprises only two tracks but each tops 20 minutes. One hails from a July 2012 gig at John Zorn’s hallowed Manhattan space The Stone, and the second took place at Williamsburg’s Public Assembly in October. According to the label, “Thurston and Loren fearlessly dive into a hot, dark pool and enter a world of surging sound and faint lights. They can’t see each other. They can only hear each others’ searing notes in the heat.”
The video above shows 26 minutes of the pair’s Stone set, which is pretty engrossing if you can set aside a little morning meditation time for half an hour of far-out ambient axe-improv. The vinyl release will be limited to only 3,000 copies, and Northern Spy promises that the music will not be made available in any other formats. Like what you’re hearing? Take a trip through SPIN’s 20 Best Avant Albums of 2012.
