fraufraulein, greater honeyguide,(CS/digi, Mappa 2025)

Belatedly getting things fresh over here at the website. Incredibly excited about this new collection of fraufraulein material, joyously shepherded by Jakub at Mappa.

Fraufraulein, the San Francisco duo of Billy Gomberg and Andy Guthrie, are master world builders. Their work is immersive — it wraps around you like a warm coat, guiding you deep into a trance-like state. Time moves in slow circles, folds in on itself, and unspools like caught fishing line. It’s tempting to say Guthrie and Gomberg construct a new reality with their work, but I think they’re revealing the contours of familiar territory, gluing together a complicated mirror more than constructing a quotidian diorama. Their music reflects a truth that we all share in some way. It’s the pauses between thoughts, the little observations that color a day, the beauty of how others’ lives imbricate for brief moments before pulling apart completely. Fraufraulein’s music feels beamed from inner space, the soft parts of our consciousness that glow like a flashlight beneath fingertips.

It’s also tempting to call Greater Honeyguide, the duo’s new record — and first in four years — a tool for fostering presence. Each composition can serve as a meditative space, and observing the quietly unfurling layers of sound — a footfall and a quiet breath, scraps of overlapping melodies sung like notes to self, synthesizers droning lightly in the distance — can be a very calming, grounding experience. But I also love to let these pieces guide me through the sulci of my brain like a slot canyon, emerging at some long-forgotten memory or idea. Think of it as a passively-active experience, like looking out of a train window, watching the scenery blur together. At the end of the album’s 37 minutes, I feel transformed. Not necessarily different, just in tune with something else. Something beyond. Something within.

billy gomberg: bass guitar, electronics, synthesizers, recordings
billygomberg.bandcamp.com
www.fraufraulein.com/billy/

andy guthrie: french horn, vocals, electronics, synthesizers, objects, recordings
www.fraufraulein.com/andy/

Mixed and mastered by Andrew Weathers
andrewweathers.com

Artwork and design by Ramon Keimig
ramonkeimig.de
www.instagram.com/ramon_keimig/

Words by Dash Lewis
linktr.ee/gardenerjams

Released by mappa as MAP056 in 2025