Squanderers - Skantagio (Original Soundtrack) [Clair]

Skantagio is an imaginary soundtrack for a film that doesn't exist, constructed entirely from two guitars and a bass, and pressed here on transparent vinyl.

Squanderers is made up of David Grubbs, Wendy Eisenberg, and Kramer, three people who, between them, have spent decades making difficult music inevitable, respectively in Gastr del Sol, the Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet, and one half of Shockabilly and the Butthole Surfers orbit. It's their second record together, and the concept is real even if the film isn't: theme music, cues, mood pieces, all the connective tissue a score provides, minus the image it was supposedly written for. No synthesizers. The title itself comes from the ancient Greek, sounding plumb, the instrument that sailors once used to measure depth before charts existed.

Theme for Skantagio opens the record with the trio's guitars circling each other warily, more of a conversation than a melody. Theme for Narcoleptics drifts exactly as its title suggests, unhurriedly to the point of hypnosis, while Theme for Fruitful Tangents lets Eisenberg's playing stray into something truly strange. Theme for Undivided Neglect ends the record on its most patient note, three musicians agreeing to leave space rather than fill it.

Seven clues for a film that you will have to imagine yourself. That's the fun part.