Ghost to Falco

After working on the upcoming Exotic Believers album for nearly a year, Ghost to Falco's Eric Crespo hitched a ride down to Southeastern Utah to clear his mind. When he returned to Portland after a month of camping in the desert, he set up the four-track in his living room and recorded the acoustic EP Hold Back the Dark. The EP's random shards of composition and freeform stream-of-consciousness were a marked antidote to the methodical plotting of Exotic Believers. In fact, Hold Back the Dark sounds like the abandonment of almost every premeditated thought, and if the record's insular claustrophobia doesn't bear the expansive freedom of camping under the stars, it does sound completely separated from civilization of any kind. Exotic Believers is reportedly due out later this year, but Hold Back the Dark is available now as a limited-edition edition CD-R. - The Portland Mercury

Eric Crespo is at the epicenter of the sonic force known as Ghost to Falco. There's an eerie timelessness to Crespo's voice, whether he's singing more conventional-sounding Americana or the heavy, deeply rhythmic haunted pieces for which his projects are more well known. Comparisons to Nick Cave and 16 Horsepower are an easy pigeonhole, thanks to the elements of country and blues in the songwriting, the musical equivalent of sepia tones, starkly contrasting colors and dark lyrical vision in common. Even so, Ghost to Falco's sound is more tribal and closer in tone to Edgar Allen Poe than William Faulkner — Gothic without being Goth. The live show features visual projections that embody this unique musical perspective and is not to be missed. - Denver Westword

When Eric Crespo started writing what would become Ghost to Falco’s third album, Exotic Believers, in 2007, he was fretting about the end of the world—or rather, trying to avoid contributing to the end of the world. But the books he’d been reading—by author/environmental activist Derek Jensen—didn’t leave much room for optimism. So if there’s a theme to Exotic Believers, “I guess it’s about coming to grips with the idea that humans are fucking up terribly,” Portlander Crespo says with a chuckle. “[And] even if you go live out in a shack in Nowhere, Montana, you’re not going to get away [from it]. As much as you think in your head and in your dreams that you can, you’re not going to.”

If it sounds like a bummer of an album, well, we’d be lying to call it upbeat. But as purging goes, Exotic Believers is quite an exercise. Crespo’s lyrical monologues dart and dive between sharp, crusty riffs and bursts of unpredictable instrumentation from dozens of notable local musicians that include the Shaky Hands’ Nick Delffs, Dragging an Ox Through Water’s Brian Mumford and Horse Feathers’ Heather Broderick. At times, as on the Elephant Six-esque opener “Black Holes” and “Secrets of the Free,” Crespo scrambles and hollers his demands; at other times he’s a voice of calm, questioning realism—singing as if explaining the human race to an alien (“We’re just trying to survive/ And we invent things and we die/ The generations carry on,” he sings on “Everything Alive.”). Crespo presents his existential crisis alongside the natural one—I hesitate to use the word “spiritual,” as God never really comes into the equation.

The s-word doesn’t scare Crespo. “I think that’s the right word,” says the 28-year-old songwriter, who moved to Portland from his home state of North Carolina in 2001. “I think everyone, no matter if they acknowledge it or not, has to have some kind of spiritual release—whether it’s shopping or television or sports or church. Music didn’t start that way for me, but when I come to realize what it is in my life, it’s like religion. It fulfills the same need.” If music is Crespo’s religion, the upstart Portland label Infinite Front is his new church. Though Crespo and GtF bandmate Ryne Warner dreamed up the imprint, it will be collectively run by a number of like-minded artists. Infinite Front’s launch party this Saturday presents releases by GtF, Ohioan and a four-way split 7-inch record featuring those bands alongside Dragging an Ox Through Water and Castanets. It’s a musically like-minded collective: All these artists teeter on the divide between melodic songwriting and noisy experimentation, and all analyze (however uniquely) big-picture issues of consciousness and existence in their lyrics.

But what good is a record label, or a new album—even one as epic as Exotic Believers—in the face of the impending Armageddon? Crespo says there’s value in the simple things. “You’ve gotta make yourself happy and feel alive,” he says. “I think it’s good for the world when people feel alive.” - Willamette Week

A common revelation to many an outsider, Eric Crespo found music as his savior while he was in middle school. Inspired by the bands his friend’s older brother played in, the young Crespo would begin to write songs on a borrowed electric guitar and stay out late to attend shows in Chapel Hill. While many of us can recollect isolation and the classic coming of age stories of middle school, the impressionable 8th grader found a new power in underground rock music. “Seeing people play who were nerds but filling up a room with people by making up their own weird music seemed really fantastic to me,” he relates with adolescent nostalgia.

On Halloween of 2001, Crespo left his home in Burlington, North Carolina and arrived in Portland, Oregon, searching for new beginnings. Once settled, he began to focus on music making and became the songwriter and lead visionary of the ever morphing deconstructed rock project, Ghost to Falco. Initially envisioned as a solo project, Crespo has invited various musicians to join him and bring his stark, haunting compositions full circle. His first releases under Ghost to Falco came out in 2004, followed by a split 7 inch with The Curtains put out by Collective Jyrk and a full length dished out by the now defunct label, Colletta Blue.

Currently, Ghost to Falco is on tour in Italy, a land Crespo has walked before with the help of admirable friends and followers. His mission is to promote his latest masterpiece, Exotic Believers, an epic collection of eerie compositions featuring cameos by Portland’s finest musicians. The album came out earlier this year on Cape and Chalice/Infinite Front and has entered the running for Best Album Of 2010 in my mind. His music lends itself to cult-classicism and hints at something greater than himself, a vehicle that drives fast into the impact of the listener.

In fact, Exotic Believers wastes no time grabbing the listener hard by the ears with an intense, rambling psalm found in opening track, “Black Holes”. A relentless, distorted pulse drives on while Crespo rants and raves about the deconstruction of modern man with venomous lines such as “Will you be the mover of your hand, or a human you can’t stand, or a concept you can’t name”. It doesn’t take long to realize Crespo’s lyrical content in Exotic Believers doesn’t exactly reflect sunshine and unicorns. However, as an artist, he says music allows him to conquer inner demons. “I find myself gravitating towards lyrical themes and ideas that are kind of weighty or dealing with times when I felt a sort of transcendence where I could look at the big picture,” he explains. “I feel fairly psychologically healthy but if I didn’t have my “artistic release” who knows what I would be like.”

The music recorded on Exotic Believers is equally emotive. Second track, “Rising” is entirely instrumental and follows the chaotic seether of “Black Holes” with a sullen string intro (featuring members of the celebrated Portland Cello Project) accompanied by an ominous church bell ringing out a desperate fate. It serves as the perfect lead-up to the albums first masterpiece, “Comfort Series #2?. About the track’s lyrical content Crespo recollects, “I got pretty obsessed with the idea of modern forms of comfort and how the human search for comfort has jeopardized our very existence.” Entering the epic song with Crespo’s wavering tone, the song builds up with a mourning melodica and then crashes down with a heavy subterranean rock ensemble laced with anamorphic guitars and the shriek of strings. The high is short lived and falls back to a glum minimalist guitar before going into a nearly klezmer inflected chant. The song is incredibly well orchestrated, a talent Crespo has cultivated with a rotating entourage of collaborators. “There was no sheet music,” Crespo explains about the writing process. While Ghost to Falco is sometimes a group effort, the players respect Crespo’s vision and help him to achieve the sounds he hears inside his head. “I’m incredibly grateful to all the people who lent such marvelous performances for this album.”

“Secrets Of The Free” is sure to be an indie underground classic – as it is probably the most “pop” oriented song on the album – with it’s fixed rock structure and infectious vocal melody. It is followed by a monotonous exhale of a harmonica on “Into The Missions/Quiet At Home” leading up to the most haunting lyrical performance on the album. Crespo triples his vocals on this a capella collage that equally channels drunken soldiers wasted on the barracks with the peyote induced wisdom of a shaman. The second half of the album contains songs like “Greater Good” and “Alive” which rely on heavy dynamics while maintaining a minimalist sincerity.

Watch a solo rendition of “Secrets Of The Free” filmed at Valentines back in 2007:

Crespo was invited to record Exotic Believers in a storage space for oriental rugs at the corner of NW Davis and 10th in Portland, OR. “It always felt l - Outsider Music Press

A common revelation to many an outsider, Eric Crespo found music as his savior while he was in middle school. Inspired by the bands his friend’s older brother played in, the young Crespo would begin to write songs on a borrowed electric guitar and stay out late to attend shows in Chapel Hill. While many of us can recollect isolation and the classic coming of age stories of middle school, the impressionable 8th grader found a new power in underground rock music. “Seeing people play who were nerds but filling up a room with people by making up their own weird music seemed really fantastic to me,” he relates with adolescent nostalgia.

On Halloween of 2001, Crespo left his home in Burlington, North Carolina and arrived in Portland, Oregon, searching for new beginnings. Once settled, he began to focus on music making and became the songwriter and lead visionary of the ever morphing deconstructed rock project, Ghost to Falco. Initially envisioned as a solo project, Crespo has invited various musicians to join him and bring his stark, haunting compositions full circle. His first releases under Ghost to Falco came out in 2004, followed by a split 7 inch with The Curtains put out by Collective Jyrk and a full length dished out by the now defunct label, Colletta Blue.

Currently, Ghost to Falco is on tour in Italy, a land Crespo has walked before with the help of admirable friends and followers. His mission is to promote his latest masterpiece, Exotic Believers, an epic collection of eerie compositions featuring cameos by Portland’s finest musicians. The album came out earlier this year on Cape and Chalice/Infinite Front and has entered the running for Best Album Of 2010 in my mind. His music lends itself to cult-classicism and hints at something greater than himself, a vehicle that drives fast into the impact of the listener.

In fact, Exotic Believers wastes no time grabbing the listener hard by the ears with an intense, rambling psalm found in opening track, “Black Holes”. A relentless, distorted pulse drives on while Crespo rants and raves about the deconstruction of modern man with venomous lines such as “Will you be the mover of your hand, or a human you can’t stand, or a concept you can’t name”. It doesn’t take long to realize Crespo’s lyrical content in Exotic Believers doesn’t exactly reflect sunshine and unicorns. However, as an artist, he says music allows him to conquer inner demons. “I find myself gravitating towards lyrical themes and ideas that are kind of weighty or dealing with times when I felt a sort of transcendence where I could look at the big picture,” he explains. “I feel fairly psychologically healthy but if I didn’t have my “artistic release” who knows what I would be like.”

The music recorded on Exotic Believers is equally emotive. Second track, “Rising” is entirely instrumental and follows the chaotic seether of “Black Holes” with a sullen string intro (featuring members of the celebrated Portland Cello Project) accompanied by an ominous church bell ringing out a desperate fate. It serves as the perfect lead-up to the albums first masterpiece, “Comfort Series #2?. About the track’s lyrical content Crespo recollects, “I got pretty obsessed with the idea of modern forms of comfort and how the human search for comfort has jeopardized our very existence.” Entering the epic song with Crespo’s wavering tone, the song builds up with a mourning melodica and then crashes down with a heavy subterranean rock ensemble laced with anamorphic guitars and the shriek of strings. The high is short lived and falls back to a glum minimalist guitar before going into a nearly klezmer inflected chant. The song is incredibly well orchestrated, a talent Crespo has cultivated with a rotating entourage of collaborators. “There was no sheet music,” Crespo explains about the writing process. While Ghost to Falco is sometimes a group effort, the players respect Crespo’s vision and help him to achieve the sounds he hears inside his head. “I’m incredibly grateful to all the people who lent such marvelous performances for this album.”

“Secrets Of The Free” is sure to be an indie underground classic – as it is probably the most “pop” oriented song on the album – with it’s fixed rock structure and infectious vocal melody. It is followed by a monotonous exhale of a harmonica on “Into The Missions/Quiet At Home” leading up to the most haunting lyrical performance on the album. Crespo triples his vocals on this a capella collage that equally channels drunken soldiers wasted on the barracks with the peyote induced wisdom of a shaman. The second half of the album contains songs like “Greater Good” and “Alive” which rely on heavy dynamics while maintaining a minimalist sincerity.

Watch a solo rendition of “Secrets Of The Free” filmed at Valentines back in 2007:

Crespo was invited to record Exotic Believers in a storage space for oriental rugs at the corner of NW Davis and 10th in Portland, OR. “It always felt l - Outsider Music Press

Since 2001, Eric Crespo has been recording under the name Ghost to Falco with a rotating cast of contributors from Portland’s independent music community. He recently released “Exotic Believers”, his third full-length and perhaps his most accomplished work to date. Released on his cooperative-run label, Infinite Front, “Exotic Believers” finds Ghost to Falco continuing to explore the odd intersections between folk songcraft, rock experimentation, and minimalist composition to assured results, at times bringing to mind Neil Young being backed by This Heat. Before hitting the road again for some upcoming tour dates, Crespo took the time to answer some questions about the making of “Exotic Believers” and his overall approach to songwriting, among other things.


It’s been a few years since your last release. In hearing the complexity and attention to detail on “Exotic Believers”, I would imagine you spent a considerable amount of time on this album. How long of a process was this?

“Into the Missions/Quiet at Home” actually got recorded back in spring of 2006 (before evolving into “Comfort Series #2”). I was starting to write stuff that would end up on Exotic Believers even earlier than that. Didn't really record anything that would end up on this record again until May of 2007. We did “Comfort Series #1” and then I went on tour in Europe for the summer. We really got down to real work about August of that year and worked very steadily until June 2008.

Not having money was always the biggest factor holding up this release. But the bright side of that was I got to take my time and make sure I was happy with things at every step of the way. I was paying my friend Jevon $10 an hour to help record this thing, and he was in school for organic chemistry. We would do three days a week at the most because he was busy and I had to work to pay for the time. $10 an hour can really add up!

Anyway, we'd do a session and then I'd take home the new mix and obsess and work out ideas at home and then come back to the studio and put my ideas onto tape. I really liked working that way. Once it was finished it had no label to release it and I went to Utah for a month to clear my head. I came back to Portland and tried to get everything in order with it, the mastering etc. The artwork was a long time coming too. I went through a lot of different concepts and mock ups for the art before deciding on something final.


While all of your albums have featured contributions from various musicians among the Portland independent music scene, “Exotic Believers” actually features over 30 different contributors. I’m wondering if you could speak towards the music community in Portland in general. As an outsider looking in, it seems to be a very supportive place and one where artists seem to be willing to work across different lines.


I assume there are other cities in the country that are comparable, but I'm not sure. I've never really tried to do anything like this record in another city. But yeah, if you can become enmeshed in the Portland music world, artists are willing to work across different lines. You can find someone who plays almost any instrument just by asking around. It's pretty tight geographically so people don't live too far from each other or from the studio. And usually they're more than willing to come and record for a few hours free of charge. Some people get extra excited about the idea of helping out and some not as much.


Is it important for you to keep Ghost to Falco an open, collaborative project rather than solidifying it as a band?
The idea I really liked about Ghost to Falco in the beginning was that it could never break up unless I wanted it to. I love the collaborative nature of bands, but it sucks when your own band breaks up and you wish it could keep going. It's so easy for bands to break up. And it is important for me to be able to play shows and go on tour alone if I need to. That's the way it started anyway. Band members didn't show up until I was a good four years into this project.


While I’m hesitant to call “Exotic Believers” a concept album, there does seem to be a scene-like structure to many of the songs that is pushed forward by your imagistic lyrics. Would you be willing to divulge some of the themes or ideas you were writing about on this album? What is the significance of the title “Exotic Believers”?
No, it's not a concept album in the sense of "It's the story of a boy who fell from heaven and had to row a boat around the world" or some such thing. Though the album does cycle between a few themes. I don't really want to color anyone's impression of it by saying too much.


As mentioned previously, the structure of your songs rarely follow in the typical verse-chorus-verse vein, but flow together like scenes with periodic disruptions and detours. Is avoiding conventional song structure something you are conscious of or is it perhaps a matter of sequencing an al - Foxy Digitalis

Ghost to Falco is largely the product of the imagination and talent of Portland’s Eric Crespo. However, on Exotic Believers, which was recorded in a warehouse over the course of many months, there are no fewer than 30 contributors, including members of Dragging an Ox through Water, Evolutionary Jass Band, Horse Feathers, Shaky Hands, Argumentix, Parenthetical Girls, Reporter, Au, and more. With so many artists on board, one might expect the album to force its mood on the listener.

The result, however, isn't quite so overbearing. While Exotic Believers is occasionally uplifting, there is a darkness that dampens the jubilation if you're listening for it. If you feel slightly perturbed or malaise at the hands of your daily routine, there is enough introspection and texture here to pick you up. But if you want something with a sock-hop vibe, then you'd probably do well looking elsewhere: the languishing permeates each track through the gritty orchestration and stark isolation of both the instruments and Crespo’s voice, to the point where tapping into its darker side only requires a slight shift in perspective.

This dialectic is made clear from the beginning. The album starts abruptly with "Black Holes," jarring you into a state of agitated awareness for less than two minutes before lapsing into melancholy and a tolling bell. It’s the sort of challenging fare that doesn’t play easy on casual listens. And unless your mood reflects this giant fireball of an album 24/7, the complexity of arrangement between strings, electronics, guitar, and Crespo’s raspy, strained voice all combine into a package that will fit a niche but not resonate all day, all night.

Consequently, I have found myself preferring the method of picking and choosing songs for specific instances. For the moments when I need a soothing but angular backdrop to my daily activity, “Comfort Series #2,” with its solitary opening and its bombastic middle sections, is the best-fitting groove. The feeling of “Secrets of the Free” reflects an even more triumphant moment in life, and so the progression of the album shifts between anguish and some sort of angry joy. Later still, “Into the Missions/Quiet at Home” is like a folk dirge for warehouse dwellers, and so the motif of unsettled urban confidence goes on without relief or levity.

The cover of Exotic Believers does an amazing job of reflecting the immense reverence and power in Crespo’s approach to music-making. The mysterious flames from the cover are silent yet imposing, with a mysterious force that emanates from the vision. While the album isn't silent, the procession of tracks possesses a similar feeling of desolation that one might feel being alone in the desert, with waves of heat, giant flames licking skyward. - Tiny Mix Tapes

Portland’s Ghost to Falco has dragged its heels through a career far harder to classify than those enjoyed by many of its experimental-pop peers. Neither developing a steady upward arc of buzz nor gaining early success only to go just as quickly supernova, the band, led by songwriter Eric Crespo, has subsisted on a base level of notoriety for nearly a decade. But with releases popping up about once every three years (2010’s Exotic Believers is the latest), the group has quietly built itself a catalog of experimental-pop dirges equal to that of any of its iconoclastic cohorts. - Willamette Week

local duo called same old song and a u.s. cat named eric from oregon (portland) w/his ghost to falco band ... he's been on tour a long time ... eric's songs a really happening, not trying to hide his feelings - the tunes being like journeys. his drummer bud is right w/him - all the way tight and I can't believe the italian bass player samuele learned the tunes so quick, whoa... but that's what eric told me. young people w/music always trip me out how happening they can get their thing on these days, damn. much respect to them. - Mike Watt's Italian tour diary

GHOST TO FALCO “It’s about coming to grips with the idea that humans are fucking up terribly,” says Eric Crespo, discussing the lyrical concerns of his eerie and oddly engaging brainchild, Ghost to Falco. Since he’s based in perpetually soggy Portland, Ore., it’s tempting to attribute Crespo’s dour outlook to seasonal affective disorder, but Crespo incubated Ghost to Falco in Chapel Hill and conceived it in Asheville before bringing it to full flower in misty Portlandia. Over time, Ghost to Falco evolved from a swirling, beatless one-man show to a full band, playing haunting compositions that sit uneasily at the intersection of minimalism, threadbare folk and experimental prog rock. Described as After the Gold Rush-era Neil Young backed by British noise terrorists This Heat, Ghost to Falco features gentle guitar strumming, bursts of atonal noise and allusive talk-singing that seems to emerge from Crespo’s subconscious. Imagine slabs of latter-day Scott Walker’s musique concrète raining down on a ravaged Americana landscape. It’s no accident Crespo’s recent LP, Exotic Believers, opens with the cut “Black Hole,” since he’s perfected the cloudy and obsessed sound of roots rock collapsing into itself.
— Pat Moran
- Creative Loafing (Charlotte, NC)

GHOST TO FALCO “It’s about coming to grips with the idea that humans are fucking up terribly,” says Eric Crespo, discussing the lyrical concerns of his eerie and oddly engaging brainchild, Ghost to Falco. Since he’s based in perpetually soggy Portland, Ore., it’s tempting to attribute Crespo’s dour outlook to seasonal affective disorder, but Crespo incubated Ghost to Falco in Chapel Hill and conceived it in Asheville before bringing it to full flower in misty Portlandia. Over time, Ghost to Falco evolved from a swirling, beatless one-man show to a full band, playing haunting compositions that sit uneasily at the intersection of minimalism, threadbare folk and experimental prog rock. Described as After the Gold Rush-era Neil Young backed by British noise terrorists This Heat, Ghost to Falco features gentle guitar strumming, bursts of atonal noise and allusive talk-singing that seems to emerge from Crespo’s subconscious. Imagine slabs of latter-day Scott Walker’s musique concrète raining down on a ravaged Americana landscape. It’s no accident Crespo’s recent LP, Exotic Believers, opens with the cut “Black Hole,” since he’s perfected the cloudy and obsessed sound of roots rock collapsing into itself.
— Pat Moran
- Creative Loafing (Charlotte, NC)

Unlocking the Conscious Mind: Ghost to Falco explores, exorcises music demons

By admin on Jan 7, 2009 | In Music | Send feedback »

by: Adrian Varnam

For all intent and purposes, Eric Crespo is Ghost to Falco. The art-rock project out of Portland, Oregon, revolves around the sounds and musings of one man, a deeply philosophical artist who creates from the subconscious and tries to get out of the way.

From experimental sounds to atonal chord voicing, Crespo takes anyone who’ll listen through a musical journey as ethereal as it is jarringly in-your-face. Occasionally, he invites other performers into his world, sharing the musical landscape with collaborators as he translates his songs into performances. And that’s where encore caught up with him via e-mail, touring the East Coast as a quartet, wholly and completely again as Ghost To Falco.

encore: Take me through the recording of your latest EP, Hold Back the Dark. What was your thought process for capturing the sounds and ideas generated, and how do you define the end product?
Eric Crespo: Well, there really wasn’t much of a thought process behind it. I had just gotten back to town from a month-long trip to the desert, and, prior to the trip, I had been working super intensely on a new studio album [the yet-to-be released Exotic Believers]. That album took years of writing and about a year to record. So I think I was just looking for an extremely different way of recording.

All my housemates left town right after I got back from my trip, and I set up the recorder in the living room, and I just started recording whatever came out. I wasn’t initially planning to release what I was recording, but eventually I thought it might make for an interesting EP.

e: So you recorded Hold Back the Dark by yourself, writing and performing alone. Was it difficult having perspective being the only person working on a project like this?
EC:I tried to use my gut and make decisions as quickly as possible. If I had even a sneaking suspicion that something wasn’t working so well, I got rid of it. I tried to let things flow from my brain into the microphone with as little interference as possible—really trying to unlock the unconscious mind.

e: How do the complexity and spontaneity of these songs translate live, and how do you incorporate other musicians into the performances?
EC: Well, with the exception of “Serious Beast” we’re not playing any of these songs live. I didn’t make these songs with the intention of playing them live, and I think that’s OK. We’ve got all kinds of other hits to rock on the tour.

e: In your press release, you compare this most recent recording process to the Beatles, Leonard Cohen and Hemingway retreating to India, a monastery and hunting expeditions, respectively. Where and how do you draw the parallels?
EC: That wasn’t meant to relate the actual recording process or anything concrete to any of those people/bands. What it was trying to illustrate is the idea that anyone who really values and lives for what they create feels the need to evolve and sort of shed the trappings of past creative endeavors from time to time, and sometimes to do that it requires an actual relocation or vacation or trip of some sort to find a particular kind of perspective or inspiration. And its not like you really know when you’ve found it or that it will even come. It’s only with hindsight that I can say any of this stuff.

But something calls, and it’s almost inexplicable, and you either answer or you don’t, and if you don’t you definitely risk getting stale. What I did was go backpacking alone for a month in southeastern Utah before Hold Back the Dark came about. That trip was its main inspiration.

e: What does living on the West Coast, specifically Portland, provide you as an artist?
EC: Well, there’s a definite epic nature quality that exists in the West. You know, snow-capped mountains in your face all the time and roadless wilderness and all that. And Portland is the one cheap city left on the West Coast. And because of that it’s become a mecca for artists and musicians who don’t really want to spend all their time working a day job—a lot of good people making good stuff.

e: How would you describe Ghost to Falco, and how has the project evolved over time?
EC: The biggest way Ghost to Falco has evolved is that I play with other people in the band sometimes now. When I first started doing it, I was the only member. And I guess I’m still the only permanent member, but sometimes I find bandmates for tours and recordings. Like this East Coast tour is a four-piece band tour. The West Coast tour that starts in February will be a trio.

I’m still not sure how to describe Ghost to Falco. It’s just the thing I do that I can always do to explore and exorcise whatever I need to explore and/or exorcise.

e: Where is this project going, both in terms of compositions and in performance?
EC: To Falco. - Encore

For a band that's been around for more than 10 years, Ghost to Falco is still ridiculously tricky to classify. The music pushes the boundaries of comfort and rewards the audience with unique and intentional songs. One thing is consistent: The man behind the curtain, Eric Crespo, has unfailingly experimented on each of his albums, sometimes as a solo act, and sometimes collaborating on record with more than 30 other musicians, as on 2010's excellent Exotic Believers. Crespo makes cerebral music that ranges from minimal noise tracks that don't have a recognizable structure, to Neil Young-esque, electric-guitar rock 'n' roll songs, to delicate folk tunes punctuated with harmonica. Exotic Believers, is an excellent example of Crespo's talent, which has bounced from Portland to North Carolina but has lately been back in our corner, making music that is insightful, diverse, and surprising. RM - Portland Mercury

For a band that's been around for more than 10 years, Ghost to Falco is still ridiculously tricky to classify. The music pushes the boundaries of comfort and rewards the audience with unique and intentional songs. One thing is consistent: The man behind the curtain, Eric Crespo, has unfailingly experimented on each of his albums, sometimes as a solo act, and sometimes collaborating on record with more than 30 other musicians, as on 2010's excellent Exotic Believers. Crespo makes cerebral music that ranges from minimal noise tracks that don't have a recognizable structure, to Neil Young-esque, electric-guitar rock 'n' roll songs, to delicate folk tunes punctuated with harmonica. Exotic Believers, is an excellent example of Crespo's talent, which has bounced from Portland to North Carolina but has lately been back in our corner, making music that is insightful, diverse, and surprising. RM - Portland Mercury

Ghost to Falco has an interesting yet familiar sound. It’s a combustible mix of rough and tumble guitar and drums matched with a hoarse melodic singer in Eric Crespo. The group’s sound is gritty and eerie but unmistakably pretty. It’s low-key, rustic rock and roll sound is akin to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, but far less tinny and English. GTF is ghostly bare bones rock music without all the bombast and posturing. - Star News Online

Ghost to Falco has an interesting yet familiar sound. It’s a combustible mix of rough and tumble guitar and drums matched with a hoarse melodic singer in Eric Crespo. The group’s sound is gritty and eerie but unmistakably pretty. It’s low-key, rustic rock and roll sound is akin to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, but far less tinny and English. GTF is ghostly bare bones rock music without all the bombast and posturing. - Star News Online

I've been very impressed by the debut release of Ghost To Falco, the solo project of Eric Crespo. I was then very curious to discover his first full length and a little bit anxious about the fact he recorded it with a full set of guest musicians. Turning a solo project into a full band can corrode a sensitivity completely.


There are differences, this album is less intimate and more intense, there is less space for layers of sounds from synths, organ or guitars and more attention towards a more rock-oriented approach. But while I'm talking about that he doesn't lose a single part of his authenticity as other artists like Unwound, Slint, Kickball, Three Mile Pilot, Victory at Sea, Bellafea, Lowercase or For Carnation easily come to mind when i listen to his new songs and band instrumentation.

There is more room for tension ont this record, and for harsher sounds, even if it never falls into complete noisy explorations. He makes also a step towards a more conventional songwriting, following the archetypes of usual indie rock formula inherited from post-hardcore sources.

I do like this new record quite a lot, even if I miss the unity once featured on the debut release. Eric Crespo is a true and clever songwriter and a brilliant interpreter of his own songs. There is no place for circus, you will taste the dust but ask for more of this. This is not a recommended record, this is a necessary one. I don't like it as much as I am obsessed by it. If once in your life records such as Spiderland, Repetition, The Dark is Just the Night, The Going-Away Present or Another Desert Another Sea have meant something for you, it is the next one on the list.

- Derives.net

A common revelation to many an outsider, Eric Crespo found music as his savior while he was in middle school. Inspired by the bands his friend’s older brother played in, the young Crespo would begin to write songs on a borrowed electric guitar and stay out late to attend shows in Chapel Hill. While many of us can recollect isolation and the classic coming of age stories of middle school, the impressionable 8th grader found a new power in underground rock music. “Seeing people play who were nerds but filling up a room with people by making up their own weird music seemed really fantastic to me,” he relates with adolescent nostalgia.

On Halloween of 2001, Crespo left his home in Burlington, North Carolina and arrived in Portland, Oregon, searching for new beginnings. Once settled, he began to focus on music making and became the songwriter and lead visionary of the ever morphing deconstructed rock project, Ghost to Falco. Initially envisioned as a solo project, Crespo has invited various musicians to join him and bring his stark, haunting compositions full circle. His first releases under Ghost to Falco came out in 2004, followed by a split 7 inch with The Curtains put out by Collective Jyrk and a full length dished out by the now defunct label, Colletta Blue.

Currently, Ghost to Falco is on tour in Italy, a land Crespo has walked before with the help of admirable friends and followers. His mission is to promote his latest masterpiece, Exotic Believers, an epic collection of eerie compositions featuring cameos by Portland’s finest musicians. The album came out earlier this year on Cape and Chalice/Infinite Front and has entered the running for Best Album Of 2010 in my mind. His music lends itself to cult-classicism and hints at something greater than himself, a vehicle that drives fast into the impact of the listener.

In fact, Exotic Believers wastes no time grabbing the listener hard by the ears with an intense, rambling psalm found in opening track, “Black Holes”. A relentless, distorted pulse drives on while Crespo rants and raves about the deconstruction of modern man with venomous lines such as “Will you be the mover of your hand, or a human you can’t stand, or a concept you can’t name”. It doesn’t take long to realize Crespo’s lyrical content in Exotic Believers doesn’t exactly reflect sunshine and unicorns. However, as an artist, he says music allows him to conquer inner demons. “I find myself gravitating towards lyrical themes and ideas that are kind of weighty or dealing with times when I felt a sort of transcendence where I could look at the big picture,” he explains. “I feel fairly psychologically healthy but if I didn’t have my “artistic release” who knows what I would be like.”

The music recorded on Exotic Believers is equally emotive. Second track, “Rising” is entirely instrumental and follows the chaotic seether of “Black Holes” with a sullen string intro (featuring members of the celebrated Portland Cello Project) accompanied by an ominous church bell ringing out a desperate fate. It serves as the perfect lead-up to the albums first masterpiece, “Comfort Series #2?. About the track’s lyrical content Crespo recollects, “I got pretty obsessed with the idea of modern forms of comfort and how the human search for comfort has jeopardized our very existence.” Entering the epic song with Crespo’s wavering tone, the song builds up with a mourning melodica and then crashes down with a heavy subterranean rock ensemble laced with anamorphic guitars and the shriek of strings. The high is short lived and falls back to a glum minimalist guitar before going into a nearly klezmer inflected chant. The song is incredibly well orchestrated, a talent Crespo has cultivated with a rotating entourage of collaborators. “There was no sheet music,” Crespo explains about the writing process. While Ghost to Falco is sometimes a group effort, the players respect Crespo’s vision and help him to achieve the sounds he hears inside his head. “I’m incredibly grateful to all the people who lent such marvelous performances for this album.”

“Secrets Of The Free” is sure to be an indie underground classic – as it is probably the most “pop” oriented song on the album – with it’s fixed rock structure and infectious vocal melody. It is followed by a monotonous exhale of a harmonica on “Into The Missions/Quiet At Home” leading up to the most haunting lyrical performance on the album. Crespo triples his vocals on this a capella collage that equally channels drunken soldiers wasted on the barracks with the peyote induced wisdom of a shaman. The second half of the album contains songs like “Greater Good” and “Alive” which rely on heavy dynamics while maintaining a minimalist sincerity.

Crespo was invited to record Exotic Believers in a storage space for oriental rugs at the corner of NW Davis and 10th in Portland, OR. “It always felt like Exotic Believers would be the last big project that came out of there,” he says. W - Outsider Music Press

A buzzing, gothic sermon, hammered into place over a wobbly cello, specked at the edges and then into a heavy, multi-stringed, minor chord reprieve – that’s how things begin on Ghost to Falco’s Exotic Believers and it’s absolutely invigorating. Like a perfect splash of cold water to renew your sense of feeling and place, the operation of your fingers and feet. Swimming about amongst the wonderfully productive experimental scene brewing about in the northwest, Ghost to Falco plays a dark Americana that does a lot to fill the inestimable gap left, just this year, by geographical neighbors, both in location and sound, Gowns. Those are big boots to fill (in my eyes), and no one is claiming that Ghost to Falco is trying to fill them, but in his own way, this project, this album, Exotic Believers, fills that void for me. The irony here is that Ghost to Falco fills that void with another void. Exotic Believers collapses country into a barbed, black hole that sucks you in, body and soul. It’s no surprise that the man is good friends with Forest Gospel favourite Dragging An Ox Through Water. Both employ a variety of sound bending/destroying effects to their music, though to results unique to each. Suffice it to say, if you like one, you’re likely to enjoy the other. Ghost to Falco’s songs do feel, in comparison, to have a bit more muscle, a bit more guitar control, which flexes at different points throughout the album. The vocals are strong, often multi tracked, lapping one upon another. And there is a couple loose, noise-punk freakouts waiting around the edges. So, slightly more aggressive, but not overly so. With all these elements in play, you won’t be surprised to learn that Exotic Believers is certainly one of the better albums I’ve heard all year. Do yourself a favor and give it a listen – you won’t be disappointed. - Forest Gospel