San Augustin with Suzanne Langille - Passing Song
(Family Vineyard)
My introduction to San Augustin came in the spring of 2001 in Berlin, Germany, as they performed as part of a Table of the Elements European tour with Presocratics. I don't remember much from that night, except that San Augustin's loose guitar/drum interplay impressed me far more than Presocratics' laudable, but ultimately disappointing, set. I made a mental note to check them out at some junction in the future.
Now, it's late 2002, and Passing Song arrives in my mailbox. Passing Song finds drummer Bryan Fielden and guitarists Andrew Burnes and David Daniell teaming up with chanteuse Suzanne Langille, longtime partner of Loren MazzaCane Connors. It's not the first time that Langille's worked with the band, and it's easy to see why. Her deep, thick voice meshes flawlessly with San Augustin's rich, moody meanderings, blanketing the music in a layer of forceful emotion. Burnes and Daniell's sparse, resonant guitars lay the music's supple framework, with occasional forays by Burnes into noisier material added as garnish. Langille's powerful vocals, though somewhat one-sided, give girth to the guitars while Fielden's drumming exists as an often forgotten rhythmic afterthought.
Passing Song is a heavy listen, despite San Augustin's stripped-down sound. Heavy on pathos, the album's six tracks often recall (perhaps a bit too obviously?) the sound of Sonic Youth's late output from the late '90s. Langille's voice is the anchor that pulls San Augustin back into the land of traditional songwriting, no matter how jumbled or clanging the guitars. Oddly enough, given Langille's vocal prowess, its her voice that most often diffuses the best musical moments of Passing Song, and though I can't argue with the pairing of Langille and the band, I'm left wondering if the collaboration could have been more fruitful.
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