l-r Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang

Damon and Naomi
Northsix, Brooklyn, New York
October 9, 2002
by David Chiu

An aura of tragic magic was in the house when the duo of Damon and Naomi played in Brooklyn's Northsix the other night. Their fragile, melancholic sounds with only a guitar, bass, and harmonium brought new meaning to the term unplugged. It was music to its barest essentials.

Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang might be known to some serious music fans as the former rhythm section of the now-defunct and now-legendary Galaxie 500. Their music as Damon and Naomi is a further extension of Galaxie's trippy, Velvet inspired approach, but it now sounds more psychedelic folk pop; and in doing so, channels the Rimbaud-influenced, sad troubadours of '60s artists like Tim Buckley. If one expects to hear the upbeat pop of their former Galaxie selves like on Fourth of July or conventional crass music is gonna be very disappointed. If you were to witness Damon and Naomi's sound today, be prepared for something of a somber, but not in the least entirely depressing, affair.

The duo's most recent album is the live Song to the Siren, a collaboration with guitarist Kurihara from the Japanese rock band Ghost. Ironically, the duo that night opened for the headlining Ghost at Northsix. Although the space of the venue seemed vast and large, the small crowd and the music took one back to the coffeehouse folk circuit of '60s Greenwich Village. The musical set-up was as intimate as the mood of the songs in the short set such as "The Navigator," "The New World," a translation of the Japanese song "Watashi no hana," a cover of Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren," "Love," and an untitled new song (some dude in the audience "cleverly " cried out, "How about 'No Title'?")

It would have been nice for Kurihara from Ghost to step in and play guitar on several of the songs -his piercing electric guitar on the Song to the Siren CD was a key highlight. But either way, the music itself was stirring and eloquent as the players. Krukowski's velvet heart on his sleeve voice and emphatic guitar strumming and Yang's singing like a soprano while alternating between the bass and harmonium (defined as an An organlike keyboard instrument that produces tones with free metal reeds actuated by air forced from a bellows.). And the duo's vocal harmonies meshed so perfectly together.

In some respect, if you factor in their work in Galaxie over a decade ago, Krukowski and Yang helped forged the quiet new loud approach in today's inward looking bands because the music is so exquisite and eloquent, if not dreamy and spiritual. Any other artist trying to do this might be perceived as boring as hell. But in Damon and Naomi's capable hands, the music's ethereal sadness can also uplifting too, as was this case of this NYC gig.

Recommended Listening: The Portable Galaxie 500 (wtih Galaxie 500), Song to the Siren, Damon and Naomi with Ghost
http://www.damonandnaomi.com