E. Serson Brannen, who has operated under the musical monikers the Subliminator and In Sonitus Lux, uses an instrument known as the hang to foster along his interest in free-floating improvisational music. The hang is a percussive instrument not unlike a steel drum, so it only takes in so far in terms of atmospherics. Enter guitarist Kevin McFoy Dunn, who likes to do anything but make his guitar sound like a regular guitar. With Dunn’s help, the three long tracks on In Sonitus Lux’s The Equinox Session are able to catch a breeze and swirl smoothly through the air.
While Brannen lays the groundwork for each piece, Dunn rotates himself from one stringed instrument to the other: electric guitar on “Her Eyes in the Morning”, fretless bass on “Bump”, and resonator for “On McTell Street”. Stickfigure Records may describe In Sonitus Lux as “free-improv”, but the outcome doesn’t sound like it wasn’t composed/preplanned. If you’ve ever thought “gosh, I’d like to hear this kind of thing with more acoustic elements” while listening to 4AD-era goth, then The Equinox Session will go down nicely.