"Incredible archival set by Christina Carter from a solo performance in London on 26 October 2004.  This art edition comes in a run of only 122 signed and hand-numbered copies with a variety of art paper sleeves in the usual Many Breaths style and is available exclusively from Volcanic Tongue.  Described by Christina as her ‘most broken and expressionist performance to date' this set features radically reworked interpretations of early solo and Charalambides material in a style that can be best described as deconstructed Texas blues by attempting to combine the voice, rhythm and slide guitar of these complex songs via a single solo performance.  Here Christina seems to be taking direct inspiration from original country blues slide players like Blind Willie Johnson and Bukka White while translating them to the present via a variety of aggressive playing styles filtered through the psychedelic blues of Jandek and Keiji Haino.  At times the playing reminds me of Bill Orcutt, not necessarily in terms of technique or sonics, but more in approach, the way the guitar is attacked furiously combining both lead and rhythm techniques simultaneously. She launches frantic flurries of slide notes while always returning to the root chord’s open tuning in the same way that Orcutt's playing always returns to that de-tuned bottom C-string.  The rhythm playing itself is anything but straight-forward with syncopated and staccato-styled playing of slashed chords.  You could imagine this as being a very physical performance with Christina moving and contorting between playing high-end slide and off-beat open chords that seem to continually resonate providing the songs' wayward rhythms and building intensity.
 On the opening track "Namaste" the slide playing gets particularly aggressive towards the end, with flurries of improvised notes sounding almost like Christina's interpretation of Heather Leigh’s wilder pedal steel work transposed to slide guitar.  The song is offset by a vocal melody that sounds as connected to traditional Celtic folk as much as country or gospel blues, giving the track a strange balance that reflects the inner conflict perfectly. One of the highlights is her interpretation of two classic early Charalambides tracks from Joy Shapes and Unknown Spin: "Here, Not Here" and "Voice Within".  The guitar playing moves seamlessly between delicate finger-picked melodies and crashing chords laden in reverb and echo providing a permanent wall of sound.  Slightly reminiscent of the atmosphere on Keiji Haino's classic Affection album and with a similar use of overlapping repetitive rhythms as on his recent Seijaku recordings.  This also really demonstrates Christina's ability as an accomplished guitar player with at times some slightly more eastern or Malian blues-sounding scales being used.  The more aggressive wailing vocals often heard on her Scorces recordings is also evident.  There is a wonderful moment where Christina moves between one of her falsetto screams and her softer tone when her voice breaks reminding us of the fragility of the performer herself. 
With so many of the recent Many Breaths releases focusing on voice and melody such as A Blossom Fell or even poetry as on Seals, it’s great to hear this other dimension of such an important artist. This is Christina as a blues-influenced solo performer jamming wild interpretations of the form in a psychedelic outlaw style that could only come from Texas. Highly recommended." - Andrew Ross

Brand new limited art edition CD-R from Christina Carter, initially issued as a subscriber-only edition and now made (slightly!) more available. Trickster... may be the most intense solo recording from Christina yet, with a  single hour-long track that is almost oppressively heavy despite never making any overt fuzz/volume moves towards explicable ‘weight’. Rather, it’s hypnotically subdued and feels uncannily ‘directed’, as close to a live channelling as Christina has come yet. The lyrics are amazing, ruminating on archetypal aspects of the trickster god/the fool while spinning delicate webs of single note guitar that are as devastatingly articulate and space-blues perfect as Loren Connors or Keiji Haino. Her vocal is particularly powerful, illuminated in a tiny ball of reverb with occasional double-track touches that suggest angelic harmonies and hallucinatory sonic equivalence. As the tracks builds – ever so subliminally – she falls into a very delicate three chord movement that floats you all the way to the end of the track, suspending notions of time and explication in favour of a profound, eternally-shifting form of almost stasis that is truly gripping and that will have you hanging on every overtone. A masterpiece from Christina, easily one of her most affecting and otherworldly releases. Comes packaged in art paper sleeves with a tracing paper insert that’s hand-written and features all-original art, every one different. Very magical and highly recommended.