Feeding Goats' "Celestial Marketplace"

Michael Hafftka is a renowned visual artist whose works are in the permanent collections of museums from coast to coast. He's also a guitarist and bassist who's collaborated with Jemeel Moondoc, Butch Morris, and Jandek. He performs in the duo Feeding Goats with his wife, the poet Yonat Hafftka, on theremin. Last July, when the Covid threat appeared to be abating, they got together with fellow Brooklynite, guitarist-electroacoustic composer Marco Oppedisano, to do some collaborative improvisation and recording. Now the results of that first-time encounter are available digitally under the rubric Celestial Marketplace.

I've long been of the opinion that anyone can play with anyone else, regardless of style, genre, or ability, if everyone involved listens and gives each other space. Celestial Marketplace illustrates my point beautifully. 

Hafftka's guitar style is rough-hewn, blues-based, and spiked with distortion, reminiscent of '60s lysergic voyagers -- a striking contrast with Oppedisano's fluid inventiveness, formed by metal and fusion (although there's more than a hint of the blues in his lines). The confluence of their sounds, with Yonat's ethereal theremin floating overhead like a disembodied voice, results in a kind of reverb-drenched experimental garage psychedelia. Celestial Marketplace is that rare recording where you can actually hear the participants listening to each other as they interact, weaving haunting strands of melody, occasionally goosed with extended techniques and harmonic feedback. Together they hover, adrift in a dreamscape, inviting us to join them. It's a journey worth making.