Cline Twins' Coincidental Album Releases

12/03/08 4:46pm

Wilco guitarist Nels Cline and his identical twin brother, drummer/percussionist Alex Cline, will both release solo albums through Cryptogramophone on Feb. 10.

Even though neither sibling apparently knew what the other was doing, there are lots of eerie similarities between Nels Cline's Coward and Alex Cline's Continuation.

Cryptogramophone owner Jeff Gauthier is also a musician who's collaborated with the Cline brothers on various projects for about 30 years. He wrote about the "wild set of coincidences" shared by Coward and Continuation as a guest blogger on Greenleaf Music's website.

"Both albums were unintentionally recorded the same week. Both album titles are one word beginning with the letter C. The covers of both recordings were painted by women artists. Both albums make references to orchids. Both contain two pieces that are 18 minutes long. Both have one piece that is over 15 years old. Drones are featured in several pieces on both CDs. The original designs of both CD discs were (again, unintentionally) practically identical, although Nels's was changed because of this. And finally, Alex's CD is about 7 minutes longer than Nels's. Not a coincidence, you say? Maybe not, unless you consider that Nels is about 7 minutes older than Alex. OK, maybe that's stretching it a bit."

Coward is a solo record which features Nels Cline playing a variety of instruments, including acoustic and electric guitars, zithers and the "Quintronics Drum Buddy." You can preview "Prayer Wheel" here.

The largely improvised Continuation features Alex Cline on drums and percussion, Gauthier on violin, Peggy Lee on cello, Myra Melford on piano and harmonium and Scott Walton on bass. You can listen to "Clearing Our Streams" here.

Wilco are the opening act on Neil Young's North American tour. You can see Nels Cline play guitar with them at Toronto's Air Canada Centre on Thursday and Friday.

Here are the songs on Coward:

"Epiphyllum"
"Prayer Wheel"
"Thurston County"
"The Androgyne"
"Rod Poole's Gradual Ascent To Heaven"
"The Divine Homegirl"
"X Change(s)"
"The Nomad's Home"
"Onan Suite I. Amniotica"
"Onan Suite II. Lord & Lady"
"Onan Suite III. Dreams In The Mirror"
"Onan Suite IV. Interruption (Onan's Psychedelic Breakdown)"
"Onan Suite V. Seedcaster"
"Onan Suite VI. The Liberator"
"Cymbidium"

Here are the tracks on Continuation:

"Nourishing Our Roots"
"Clearing Our Streams"
"Fade To Green"
"Steadfast"
"SubMerge"
"On The Bones Of The Homegoing Thunder"
"Open Hands (Receive, Release)"