Jon Collin & Demdike Stare - Fragments Of Nothing (2020)

Demdike Stare rake over the embers of their recent ’Sketches of Everything’ album with guitarist Jon Collin to present ‘Fragments of Nothing’; a windswept collection of strung out blues that we reckon makes for some of their best low-key work; gorgeous, highly evocative sonic tapestries for the times.

Further teasing out vintage, arcane threads of connection between Deep-South porchside styles and their native brutalist blooz, Demdike sound absorbingly comfortable in this strung out mode, with the deftest hands on their noumenal loom spinning Jon Collin’s expressive guitar licks into acres of cranky, ghostly space to offer a starker and more blunted nocturnal perspective on the album’s dusky panoramic scenery.

Extracting an elemental Ur-state, the duo draw upon a deep well of inspiration from the rugged beauty of the Pennine landscape to invoke a steeply immersive style of folk-blues abstraction. Across two sides they rustle a ragged, whiskey soaked and red-eyed tapestry of ideas, variously recalling darker echoes Loren Mazzacane Connors and even Stephen O’Malley solo sides across the 45 minutes of their spirit-guiding trek.

Pick your poison - mushies, peyote, banana skins, whatever’s to hand - saddle up, and prepare for an engrossing chapter in the Demdike saga.