Raise your glass high!

Half the year gone . . . half t’go!

Break, by COREY FULLER

Corey Fuller is one half of the duo Illuha on 12k and Break is his first solo recording for 12k. A crashing wave, the breaking dawn, an impact, the crushing of emotional spirit… the breaking of a storm. These are all relevant ideas behind his choice of a title for this highly emotional abum. Fuller has addressed the universality of human struggle without going into specifics of his own personal waves. The ideas that we as humans all share many of the same difficulties is both a launching point and a message he wishes to share with Break — the catharsis. 

While Illuha’s music is known for its attention to small sounds and light textures, Break, while equally as fragile, sees Fuller working with much heavier elements. Still highly melodic, the work pulls and churns between harmony and tension, weight and air, the crash of a wave, the pull of the undertoe. The album is focused intensely on melody and harmony, progressions more carefully composed than the serendipitous found sound of his work with Illuha. 

The piano is often at the center of these songs, an instrument (his own) that has become much an extension of his own body. His own voice plays an important role as well, sometimes lyrically ethereal and sometimes just a breath signifying the ever-fragile thread of life. Beautifully recorded in his Tokyo studio, the sounds are captured with all of their inherent physical flaws. As Fuller himself states about the piano being “Recorded in a way that you can hear the bones, like an open ribcage, moving contorting…” Everything on Break is there for a reason, not just the sound and soul of the piano but the electronic elements as well, rattling bass tones and dramatic, emotional waves of synthesizer rising and dissolving. 

If a single word can be used to describe Break it is physical. From the instruments and techniques used to produce the album to the concepts of vulnerability of the human body. Break is an emotional riptide where violence and rest struggle to be the last voice.  

Released February 1, 2019

All music composed, performed and engineered by Corey Fuller in Tokyo, Japan.
Taylor Deupree plays glockenspiel and other percussion on “A Handful of Dust.”
Mastered by Taylor Deupree at 12k. 

Fridman Variations by Stephen Vitiello & Taylor Deupree

Interesting sounds, atmospheres & collaborations on this . . .
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Both Stephen Vitiello and Taylor Deupree are seasoned collaborators. Each new collaboration is a new context, a new conversation and a unique opportunity to learn. Vitiello has worked with musicians such as Scanner, Steve Roden, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Machinefabriek. As an artist often represented in galleries and large scale sound installations he has also had the frequent opportunity to work with visual artists from the likes of Tony Oursler to Julie Mehretu and Joan Jonas. Deupree has a long history of collaboration including early works with Christopher Willits and Richard Chartier as well as Marcus Fischer, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Bon Iver’s S. Carey. Fridman Variations is Vitiello and Deupree’s third release together and continues their tradition of exploring their unique form of experimental improvisation. 

Stemming from a live performance at NYC’s Fridman Gallery, Fridman Variations was co-produced by the gallery and will remain as part of the gallery’s publications. Fridman Gallery is a visual exhibition space that also boasts a unique dedication to experimental music through their annual New Ear Festival, at which Vitiello and Deupree performed and recorded the main piece for this album. 

Side A of Fridman Variations is the live recording, edited for vinyl while side B contains two pieces made with some of the same source material as the live performance and intended to be related, but entirely new, works. Guitar, modular synthesizer and a small tape synthesizer are at the heart of these songs. The improved layers draw on buried melodies and hint of field recordings and found textures. Not overly melodic, not overly noisy, Vitiello and Deupree like to find the edge between the pretty and the obscure, often suggesting more than laying their intentions bare. This type of sound is one that the duo often explores as an opportunity for Deupree to adventure beyond his melodic comfort zone and for Vitiello to work and experiment with new instruments and how they interact with his signature guitar. 

One of the biggest inspirations to the artists for this work was the hushed and dreamy state of the audience during the performance. The late-night ambience added to the immersive quality of the surround speakers and helped to channel creativity and a sense of sharing. 

Both artists feel that recording live performances is an opportunity to capture a unique moment that simply won’t happen again. Despite a performance’s flaws or imperfections the energy and interaction is a special moment in time for the performers and audience. The opportunity to not only document it for the listeners who were present but also to be able to share the moment with those who weren’t there is a positive one. To further be able to expand on the ideas in the controlled studio environment serves to enrich the experience and further the communication.  

Released February 1, 2019

Adventures Into Somethingness, by Conrad Praetzel

This is a wonderful & interesting album, full of ambience, drone & glitch, with just the right amount of subtle causticity; I had the privilege of listening to it last month & will feature a track on our August podcast . . .
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Conrad Praetzel is a multi-instrumentalist/ composer/ sound designer based in Northern California. He has self-published and promoted his recordings released on Paleo Music for over thirty years. His last five albums were released under the moniker Clothesline Revival, roots Americana with a modern electronica bent that Lucinda Williams acknowledged as an influence on her album “West” in No Depression Magazine.

Conrad Praetzel’s Adventures Into Somethingness is the first album of new music released under his name in twenty-four years. Gone are the traditional roots music instrumentations he has frequently employed in the past. This is explorative ambient music that continuously evolves in form utilizing deft sound design techniques along with tension and release to mesmerize and engage the listener. Sampled sound sources, often of electric guitar processed through effect pedals, are further reshaped, reprocessed and mangled into something entirely new to produce pulsating drones filled with sonic artifacts and ethereal landscapes.

He has never performed live but has received national acclaim including features on both NPRs All Things Considered and the Day to Day show. The entire Paleo Music catalog of Conrad Praetzel and Clothesline Revival albums will be made available on bandcamp concurrent with the release of Adventures Into Somethingness.

credits

releases June 24, 2022

Yesteryear . . .

December 03 (Reworked), by Sergio Díaz De Rojas

Released December 3, 2018

To celebrate our label’s first anniversary, we are releasing Sergio Díaz De Rojas’ EP December 03 (Reworked), an outstanding collaborative project that will provide the listener with a varied collection of reworks, ranging from delicate piano and cello to soft electronic and ambient. This EP features CEEYS, Matt Emery, Elskavon, and Jakob Lindhagen. 

“December 03 was composed and recorded in one afternoon, and released in the middle of the night, without any sort of promotion. Two years later, with the intention of giving these simple but meaningful piano pieces some recognition – and to close that particular phase of my work as a composer – I invited some of my friends to reimagine the four tracks on the EP, and decided to release it through my dear label.” 

December 03 (Reworked) will be available digitally and on limited edition cassette, alongside a remastered version of the four original piano pieces composed by Sergio. 

Composed and mastered by Sergio Díaz De Rojas. 
Artwork by Seraphina Theresa.

Released December 3, 2018

u n f o c u s e d [r e p r i s e]

u n f o c u s e d _ r e p r i s e | ambient/experimental/piano/avant-garde/minimal | 78:26

A “wrapped around the piano”, meandering mixture of hush & quietude; crafted in tribute to “. . on reflection” by William Basinski & Janek Schaefer (read our April album review here)
(with a hearty shout-out to the Temporary Residence label for forwarding a copy of this wonderful composition to preview!).

An absolute pleasure to construct, this pairs well with 2021’s ’elements_view’.

Listen via Mixcloud


01 Harold Budd & John Foxx – Weather Patterns
02 David Bowie & Erdal Kızılçay – The Mysteries (edit)
03 William Basinski & Janek Schaefer – ‘. . on reflection’ (three)
04 Brian Eno & Harold Budd – First Light
05 William Basinski & Janek Schaefer – ‘. . on reflection’ (four)
06 Ayumi Tanaka Trio – Zephyr
07 Grotta Veterano – Dutch Boy Paint (excerpt)
08 John Foxx & Harold Budd – After All This Time
09 William Basinski & Janek Schaefer – ‘. . on reflection’ (two)
10 Brian Eno – A Clearing
11 Porya Hatami – Transition
12 Janek Schaefer – Battlestar Kaempfert
13 Jeff Greinke – The Conversation
14 Izumi Tateno/Toru Takemitsu – Les Yeux Clos 2

Sync

u n f o c u s e d [ r e d u x]

u n f o c u s e d [r e d u x] |experimental ambient/ambient/minimal/noise | 75:59

Part 3. Minimalist noise installations w/ cantilevered sonance & upended resonant frequencies; (inspired by the Disturbed Earth release, The Night has Lost its Shade)

Listen via Mixcloud

01 Medley:
…..a. Luigi Turra – Prisma 1 (introductory snippet)
…..b. Giuseppe Ielasi – its appearance, reflected by three copies (01)
…..c. Luigi Turra – Prisma 1 (edited extract)
…..d. Luigi Turra – Prisma 3 (excerpt)
02 Disturbed Earth – Cleveland (excerpt)
03 theAdelaidean – Slow Autumnal Sunrise (excerpt)
04 Steve Roach & Robert Rich – Persistence of Memory (for Dali)
05 Robert Davies – Benthos
06 Lammergeyer – Remnants
07 Tunnelwater — Chanting and Humming
08 Disturbed Earth – Apollo (excerpt)
09 Brian Eno – The Lost Day
10 The Rain Dogs – Towards the Sublime
11 Numina & Caul – The Memories Blend
12 El Wud — Worldline

“reflecting on ‘. . . on reflection’ ”

How would one circumnavigate a straight line between fullness . . . and sparsity? Between the delicate. . . and powerful?? Solidity vs. vaporousness???

I’ve been listening to “. . .on reflection”, a collaborative and engaging work between musicians William Basinski & Janek Schaefer; I’ve had it on ‘repeat’ for the last several days, and am mesmerized by the delicate balance between soft & firm, fluid & solid and ethereal & real-time aural construction. It immediately brings to mind the ambient collaborations between Harold Budd, Brian Eno & John Foxx; (that is to say: a powerful canon of composition*).

The five tracks dance to an avant-garde ambience that draws the listener into its interior web of mirrored cadence of piano & electronic meditation. The haunting, ofttimes sparse and meandering, melodies reverberate across an emotional landscape that yields only to the listener’s wonderfully imaginative, inner wanderings; i.e. what will you do; what will you accomplish and for what will you strive within this newly discovered, aurally rich world? Let the trinkling, tinkling melodies wash over you — then set your sights to new & broader horizons.

When all is said, done and listened to, it’s a crossroads: a juncture where delicately woven, nuanced tapestries of sound meet the shimmering reality of sublime compositional genius (and a highly recommended #ambient acquisition).

Bravo, gentlemen!

Available via the Temporary Residence record label on April 29th.

(*this album will be featured on an upcoming May/June ambient mix podcast)

The Process . . .

#ambient/#experimental/#classical/#techno