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reviews
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Westword 12/22/05
Best of 2005
Art of Flying
As if you were the Sea
Like Ahab obsessed with that rascally whale, Art of Flying frontman Dave Costanza stares down the blowhole of seafaring mythology. Straight out of Questa, New Mexico, and with a refined taste for sad, psychedelic folk, AOF harpoons the beast with quiet, loving precision. Better yet, the unassuming trio makes it all seem effortless. -- John La Briola
Westword 09/15/05
From its remote base of operations near Questa, New Mexico, thirty miles north
of Taos, Art of Flying specializes in a hazy and beautiful sound that thrives
off the grid like a wild desert flower. Comprised of San Francisco transplant
Dave Costanza, his wife, Anne, and longtime Portland musician Larry Yes, the
gentle, air-going trio flies a little sideways through a spacy sprawl of
fractured noise folk and understated psychedelia. With roots in the Whitefronts,
Lords of Howling and Granfaloon Bus, Art of Flying sings upbeat ballads and
unresolved love songs populated by lost sailors, butterflies and mystical magpies. Having recently completed its fourth full-length, As If You Were the Sea, co-produced by d.biddle members Jeff Davenport and Jamie Smith, the band will venture out from its renowned home recording studio, the Barn (featured in Tape Op magazine), for a rare display of aerial prowess alongside Dang Head and Bad Weather California, who will round out the flying circus.
East Bay Express
11/24/2004
Best Music of 2004
Art of Flying
Is Ever Gone
The astonishing folk universe of ex-San Franciscans Dave
and Ann Costanza is simultaneously expanding and becoming
more focused, with production by Larry Yes that spreads a
soft, glowing blanket of keyboards, bicycle bells, finger-snaps,
reverb, and ambient goodness all over the proceedings.
Most of the vocals are Dave's this time, though a young
Costanza daughter offers a startling reading of a piece
that begins "Fuck you, America..."
East Bay Express
11/27/2002
Best Music of 2002
Art of Flying
Garden of Earthly Delights
Acoustic guitar and minimal percussion serve
as backdrop, framing Dave and Anne Costanza's elegant,
surrealist explorations of love. His voice is clear and
bright, hers creaky and weird. Imagine the young,
folky Tom Waits split in two, or if the front couple of
Ida were actually the offspring of Bob Dylan and Kate Bush.
Amazing handmade packaging, too.
New Times Los Angeles
February 22-28, 2001
CRITIC’S CHOICE
Wing span: Art of Flying take a ghostly,
lost-on-the-moor sound and transfer it to the desert.
The married couple behind the group, David and Anne Costanza,
have had plenty of time to work in the kinks:
For 20 years they were members of the San Francisco
art-improv band the Whiteouts before heading to Questa,
New Mexico. There is a sly quality to the low-key magic
of their homerecorded album, An Eye Full of Lamp,
that nods to their connection with Camper Van Beethoven
(the Costanzas are in another group, Dent, with two former
CVB members). Their music moves from stonerish low rock
to raw-boned country folk, Dylan-esque word paintings to
Tom Waits-like demishanties, and, sometimes, when Anne
sings,'there's even an unlikely hint of Kate Bush.
For burned-out urbanites who occasionally downshift to
decaf and aren't afraid of vocals that veer into the
off-key, Art of Flying's desert pastoral is worth slowing
down for.
-- Sara Scribner
Eugene Weekly
2/22/01
The band's CD One Eye Full of Lamp is atmospheric,
voraciously eclectic, momentarily Floydian or
Beefheartesque and thoroughly brilliant.
Poetry abounds in the gems of this collection. Check out
"Mimicry":
I alone have compassed the circuit of heaven
rode the big bulls and birthed the sea
sewn wings and sails and ladders
oh little me
AOF's David
and Anne Costanza have been making music together for
20 years. They used to be The Lords of Howling, and
they continue to work with a couple of ex-Camper Van
Beethoven-ers in Dent. Now based in New Mexico,
where they still type on typewriters, magically enough,
they will be bringing a full band through for what
promises to be a scintillating evening.
Seattle Weekly
3/1/01
New Mexico's Art of Flying are made up of couple David and
Anna Costanza plus occasional sidepeople. Twenty-
year indie-music veterans (they've been in previous
outfits like Lords Of Howling and Dent, a collaboration
with Victor Krummenacher and Jonathan Segal of
Camper Van Beethoven semi-fame), they’ve got a
knack for melody, as demonstrated on the new An Eye
Full of Lamp.
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