Disappears front man Brian Case has been taking time away from his guitar to cultivate an interest in synths, as you know if you’ve heard him in gothy duo Acteurs. He also loves ambient, textural music, and in 2013 he found himself listening obsessively to Lullabies & Nightmares, a solo record by Ann Arbor-bred experimental musician Justin Walter that Kranky had released that spring.
Collaborations have certainly been based on less, and in late 2014, Case and Walter recorded together as Bambi Kino Duo, laying the foundation for what would become their debut album. (Their label, International Anthem, is pretty sure the two of them met for the first time at the sessions.) See Heat comes out Saturday, November 7, on cassette and digitally, and that night Bambi Kino Duo celebrate its release with their first live show—a Burlington date headlined by Ahleuchatistas.
Right now, one track off See Heat is streaming on Bandcamp. For the first five minutes or so of “OKO,” a faint heartbeat pulse comes and goes, surrounded by gentle, hollow-sounding wooden chattering and a beautiful drifting ambience that covers a broad spread of gauzy tones. Walter’s electronic valve instrument (EVI) coalesces out of this haze, its distant, synthetic lead voice lending the music a futuristic aura. The mood is one of anesthetized wonder and unfocused anticipation—and then the song dissolves into soft ocean-swell oscillations, every so often interrupted by a square-edged blurt.
But what am I saying? You can hear it for yourself: