Diving Bell is the product of another collaboration between Craig Colorusso and Joel Westerdale. For the first time since their work on China Pig's "Tip-Toe Through the Hatching Chamber," Colorusso and Westerdale have decided to commit to tape, capturing the sounds developed in their live sound installations which includeed such performances as MASCHINE, TAGMUSIK, and The SECRET GARDEN TOUR.
China Pig’s Tip-toe Through the Hatching Chamber is an album that completely amazes me.Though the band was just bass, guitar,drums, and clarinet, the end result was greater than the sum of it’s parts. Their only full length album, Tip-toe Through the Hatching Chamber, is easily the slowest building record I have ever heard. And, when it reaches it’s peak, there is a gushing uneasy undercurrent of soft noise and naturally created atmospheres that still amazes me whenever I listen to it.
The appropriately titled, Diving Bell, is the collaboration between Craig Colorusso (guitar, field recordings)and Joel Westerdale (drums), both formerly of China Pig, and their self titled record is nothing short of breathtaking. A diving Bell is a large bell shaped container made of a combination of glass and metal. The bell can be large enough fot multiple people to stand in, and it is placed in the water, allowing individuals to stay underwater for a long period of time, a perfect description of the feeling you get when listening to this band.
Since their China Pig days, Colorusso and Westerdale have moved in an even more experimental direction, combining thick soothing drones, picked guitar, and slow simple, pulsating drums. Blurred by the ocean’s depth, the sounds echo through the murky water, swirling,whirling, surrounding, and mesmerizing the listener. Nov 16th 2001
Fakejazz.com