Have you played exquisite corpse? Probably. It's an old writing or drawing game invented by Surrealists where you fold a piece of paper as many times as you have people in your group. Then you pass it around and each person either writes a word or draws part of a body on their particular square, without looking at any of the others. When the paper has gone all the way around, it is unfolded to reveal strange accidental poetry or a bizarre cartoon creature, i.e. an exquisite corpse. Wikipedia has a helpful example of an exquisite corpse. High Places have a whole graveyard full of 'em.
The once-Brooklyn-now-Los Angeles-based electro-impressionists paint their squares in broad, haphazard strokes and splatters. Pulsing, sun-faded calypso scenes in watercolor, like Animal Collective at the beach with toddlers. The band is made up only of Robert Barber and Mary Pearson -- he a dyed-in-the-wool hardcore kid, and she a classically trained bassoonist. Brought together by a common interest in collage and oddball recording methods, the two pile their divergent influences into every song, bouncing ideas back and forth, folding, unfolding and refolding their "piece of paper," until they come up with the ultimate in exquisite layered sound. Trippy, eh?
On a more charming note, since moving to Los Angeles, Pearson has started a chocolate drawer. Find out what exactly that is in T. Cole Rachel's Soundgirl interview, where you'll also find an mp3 of High Places' "The Storm" and an account of their ongoing world tour! Also, here they are playing live in Brooklyn!
* photo by Hisham Bharoocha