That SILVER SUMMIT is a New York band is undeniable. The darkness and frenetic claustrophobia of NYC ebbs from every sonic pore of the band’s debut long player. New York City is nothing, though, if not trace elements of the globe’s disparate cultures (made uniform through earth and steel and flesh). Multiculturalism informs Silver Summit’s sonic character as much as the blackened brownstone facades, hidden public gardens and slumbering subway commuters must. Where else then to seek unmitigated conflations of metal, dream-pop, oriental, British folk and other harmonious dissonances than in the band’s own musings? The musical layers are infinite, as are the listener’s chances at discovery.

Apple Tree

Silver Summit released their debut in June of 2008. Greg Weeks (Espers) recorded their debut at his all-analog Hexham Head Studio in Philadelphia and subsequently signed them to his label, Language of Stone, a sub-label of Drag City. The Brooklyn-based psyche-rock band spent most of 2008 and the early part of 2009 playing several high profile gigs in and around their native Brooklyn and were twice asked to be the support (one East Coast and one West Coast tour) for Wovenhand--featuring ex-16 Horsepower frontman David Eugene Edwards.

The core of the band is David Shawn Bosler (guitars) and Sondra Sun Odeon (vocals and baglama saz), but the rotating band regularly features Native American recording artist Laura Ortman (violin, guitars), Brooklyn neo-folk break out artist Alexandra Drewchin (vocals, guitars), and in the past has contained Ben McConnell on percussion (Marissa Nadler, White Magic) and Otto Hauser on drums (Vetiver, Espers, Devendra Banhart). Some of the many bands they have played with include Deerhunter, Vetiver, Witch, Crystal Stilts, Earthless, Sinoia Caves, Bodies of Water, Psychic Paramount, and White Hills.

Sun-Odeon, a self-taught multi-instrumentalist, grew up taping classical music pieces off the radio and sneaking a hand held transistor radio into bed to listen to beneath the sheets. Her past includes drumming and playing guitar in several noise rock bands in D.C. and, over these years, recording quiet meditations for voice and guitar. Not until Silver Summit did she find an appropriate time and place for these quieter explorations and an avenue for developing her enchanting, multi-dimensional voice. Lyrics are sometimes in different languages, sometimes invented, and are inspired by everything from Chinese cult-fantasy films to metaphysical and religious journals to communions with Mother Nature and death.

For Bosler, Silver Summit had its origins nearly 10 years ago while living in Portland, Oregon: Here he first explored finger-style guitar (he was fortunate enough to study with finger-style godfather John Fahey), studied Roma/gypsy folk music, and honed his compositional skills in his avant-classical guitar and string combo, Mercurium. He works as a film score composer, music supervisor, and writer—here he documents his unashamed passion for extreme-metal and noise bands. Appropriately, in Silver Summit you can hear traces from Bosler's metallic musical past.

Apple Tree

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