Check out the title track for hints of the musical kaleidoscope to follow. Halvorson begins with a simple repeated figure that is indeed very folk-like. Pavone plays a single-note accompaniment as the pair sings with close harmonies their song of, well, I don't know what: "What is remaining/Decided to float in the air/Hanging there." Is it a decision yet to be made? The 'folkie' cliche would point in that direction, but then the music takes a sharp turn to the left as the guitar and viola diverge, bringing in busted distortion, violent chords and other stringed abuse. It's fun, aggressive and...not folk.
What's great about Thin Air is that you can never be certain of direction. "Juice" starts out with a loping waltz feel that heads toward skronkville but never quite gets there. Contrast that with the call & response of "Juice." Dissonance never tasted so good. My favor tune here is "Lullaby," which showcases this pair's ear for genre-mixing. What starts off as a stately lament soon morphs into passages that sport guitar lines that wouldn't be out of place on a Django Reinhardt record.
So far, none of the data mining that I've done concerning Ms. Halvorson and Ms. Pavone has turned up any hard evidence of this theoretical Tom Waits connection. My ears want the story to be true. They want to discover a photo of the girls schlepping calliope parts (Father's Day presents) off to the FedEx office. They want to find the sheaf of notes from the Glitter & Doom press conference plans.
Barring further developments, I guess they have to be happy with this quirky chunk of music.
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