JARR (yes, all caps) is a collaborative project between British ambient guitarists Yellow6 and Wodwo. Of course, Yellow6 is the solo project of British guitarist Jon Attwood and I've reviewed releases by him here at Chain D.L.K. before. I'm much less familiar with Wodwo (Ray Robinson), a composer & sound artist who has produced musical scores for film, video games, theatre and dance. His music varies from minimal loop-based microsound and lowercase, to neoclassical, experimental drone and ambient. Ray is also a novelist and screenwriter. In a way, these guys seem like the perfect parties for collaboration, and the album comes off that way too.

The modus operandi here is sort of a shoegaze ambient noise thing, with each track based on someone who was, did, had, or experienced...something, which is kind of a novel idea for a music album, but has been used before in TV series episodes. The opening track - "The One Who Was Pale As Milk" is a melding of ambient guitar with thick electronic drone with very slowly unfolding melodic content and a little electronic embellishment. "The One Who Took The Job in New York" ramps up the shoegaze ambience instrumentally along the line of Kevin Shields' MBV. It ebbs and flows over 7 1/2 minutes through varying degrees of noisiness, but never enough to make you want to hit the skip button.

"The One With Psychedelic Eyes" brings some nice fingerpicked (electric) guitar to fore with Enoesque electronica backing and a nice repeating melody. "The One Who Stared At The Sun Without Blinking" either had their retinas burned out or was blind to begin with, and this may be about the most placid shoegaze ambient noise you will ever hear. One of my favorite tracks on the album, "The One Who Ghosted You" is appropriately gauzy and gossamer, also with some touches of lazy slide guitar adding to the sort of spooky atmosphere. There's not a lot to this track, and that's precisely why I like it so much. I didn't care as much for "The One Who Never Knew," as the guitar distortion/noise was a bit overwhelming for me, but I know some really love this kind of stuff, so it's there if you want it. Seeming like the polar opposite, "The One Who Was Terrified of Cats" (really??...there are people terrified of kitties??...you should meet out Mrs. Peel) is serenely fingerpicked ambient guitar and ambient pad background with a somewhat melancholy theme. You can really feel the grief in "The One Whose Sister Died" with its gentle sorrow and melancholic melody. Yet, there is a bit of hope there. The enigmatic "The One Who Collected Animal Bones" just may be the highlight of the album, as in a little under 8 minutes the track manages to encapsulate everything worthy about this collaboration.

This is the kind of album that grows on you. At first I was a little on the fence about it, but after a few plays I found it enchanting. Some may like it loud, but I think this album works best when played quietly. The album comes in two editions - the more expensive deluxe version with a bonus disc not found in the standard CDr or digital release (limited to 100) and the regular CDr (limited to 200) both with the awesome Sound in Silence handmade and hand-numbered packaging.