Breath of earth, of rock, of rot

Rusty ring, Shimone Samuel

Elliott Carter Family - Tin Hat Trio

If industrial music is the sound of abstract urban decay (lonely clang of metal on metal, echoing boom of empty warehouses), "Elliott Carter Family" is some kind of agrarian complement, evocative of the menace of abandoned barns groaning as they ease their weight into the earth, rainwater dripping on rusted metal, windows on loose hinges flap, flap, flapping in the wind.

I can't say for absolute certain, but I think the title references both composer Elliott Carter and The Carter Family. Which makes sense, as here Tin Hat Trio marks a plot where daring, atonal orchestral and modest, harmonic folk music converge (but it is something quite different, needless to say, from Copland's Appalachian Spring). Note how the plucks, patters and lurches give ground to a trundling guitar strum after about 2:30.

Piano Concerto: I - Elliott Carter

My Clinch Mountain Home - The Carter Family

Counterpoint:

Still Walking - Throbbing Gristle

From:
Book of Silk, Tin Hat Trio (eMusic)
Carter: Piano Concerto/Symphony No. 1/Holiday Overture, Elliott Carter (eMusic)
Wildwood Flower, The Carter Family (US)
20 Jazz Funk Greats, Throbbing Gristle (US, UK)