Rainer Jancis is an Estonian, Tallinn-based guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, songwriter, and current vocalist and guitarist of the Estonian alternative rock band Metro Luminal. Uhhuu, the title of Jancis’ electric guitar duo album with American avant-guitarist Elliott Sharp, means owl in Estonian. In Estonian culture, the owl possesses many qualities as expressed so beautifully in the famous line from David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: «Owls are not what they seem» (as told by the Giant to Special Agent Dale Cooper). Sharp’s son, Kai Sharp, contributed the suggestive artwork for this album.
The album was recorded remotely. Jancis played an electric guitar, fretless 7-string guitar, drums, electronica, and programming at his Estonian U-Duur studio, and Sharp played electric guitar, baritone guitar, 12-string guitar, and drum programming at his zOaR studio in New York. American drummer Ron Hetah and Estonian-Swedish accordionist Tuuliki Bartosik play on the first piece. Jancis mixed and arranged the four pieces. Sharp and Jancis celebrated the album’s release with a concert in Võru, Estonia.
Jancis and Sharp’s music is uncompromising, raw, intense, and stormy, exhausting the experimental sides of both musicians. The opening, longest piece, «Bug Reports», establishes their immediate affinity of these fearless musicians, focusing on a dense, psychedelic texture with Heath’s polyrhythmic grooves and Bartosik’s Eastern European folky undercurrents. The title piece alternates between hyper-bluesy electric guitar onslaughts and feedback-laden, noisy attacks. «Inf0war» encapsulates Sharp and Jancis’ rage regarding the complicity of social media outlets with wars across the globe into an explosive texture -literally – packed with tons of thorny guitar lines. The last piece, «Crash Mob», cements the alchemical transformational magic of the extreme and merciless yet highly expressive sounds and textures of Jancis and Sharp.
Eyal Hareuveni
Elliott Sharp (electric guitar, baritone guitar, 12-string guitar, drum programming), Rainer Jancis (electric guitar, fretless 7-string, drums, electronica, programming), Rob Heath (drums), Tuuliki Bartosik (accordion)
