Walrus Ghost & Max Frankl - Avenues and Remembrances (2018)

‘Avenues and Remembrances’ is the debut collaborative release from Brooklyn-based electronic producer Walrus Ghost and Zurich-based guitarist Max Frankl.

The two met by chance in 2013, when Frankl, visiting New York to check out the revered music scene, answered an ad for an open room that Banks had posted. At the time Frankl moved in, Banks was on the cusp of releasing ‘Uplifting Themes for the Naysayer,’ his debut album as Walrus Ghost. Their friendship was instant, but the idea of working together grew slowly from a mutual appreciation of the differentiation between each other’s approach to playing and writing music. Banks recalls, “I don’t think we look at song writing in the same way, mostly because he’s a proper instrumentalist and I’m more unconventional, everything for me is self-taught. I just started thinking what if I took this guy’s playing, bring in his perspective, and put it together with what I have to offer.”

After staying in Brooklyn for several months, Frankl moved back to Zurich. With initially no plan to collaborate, he and Banks continued on their own paths, keeping in touch, sparingly sending recordings and ideas back and forth. Eventually the ideas began to take shape. One song turned into three, and what was originally meant to be a 4-song EP turned into ‘Avenues and Remembrances,’ a fully-realized 8-track mini-album. Complimenting Frankl’s guitar work with Walrus Ghost’s production style, the album is a collection of meditative post-rock songs woven together by airy guitar lines, warm textures, and nostalgic field recordings. Shifting between moments of soft repose and arresting contemplation, each song draws attention while simultaneously allowing itself to descend into the background as the ears and mind wander.