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2LP
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ARBOR 126LP
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"Husk, a career-spanning double-LP retrospective marking Raglani's 'early period' (2004-2009), is both the artist's 'Best-of' collection, as well as a document of a personal orientation within the canon of electronic music. As a devoted student of E.M. history and synthesis techniques, Joseph Raglani has spent the past decade in his St. Louis studio consuming and refiguring. While highly-informed, these tracks avoid simple derivation, the traces of influence are not easily decipherable; the common descriptors fall away. The sonic legacies orbiting the INA GRM axis cross paths with pop sensibilities more akin to the sensuous pulse of New Order. Raglani mines the expressiveness of this fertile boundary space. The compositions on Husk are dense featuring a palette of analog and digital electronic instruments as well as guitar, voice, pedal steel, organ, melodica. Disparate elements find a way to resonate to maximum emotive effect. The sonic energies are not bound to their sources, but are rather utilized for their ability to express. One fourth of the material is available here for the first time; the remainder from private-press and small run releases has been remixed by Raglani and re-mastered by Greg Davis for presentation in this collection."
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LP
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ARBOR 136LP
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New release from this criminally-underrated project: Kithless is the first vinyl release from Pedestrian Deposit to feature member Shannon A. Kennedy (cello). "Pedestrian Deposit (Jonathan Borges and Shannon A. Kennedy) possesses a certain, restrained relationship to texture. Sources both electric and acoustic operate on a logic of hybridity becoming compositional elements organized through their activation of a shared acoustic space. This functions in multiple directions: in some instances, the cello is captured and converted to a subtle electronic variation, expanding the range of the tone through this capture, at other times it acts as a sort of mimicry, tools of one sort operating on the language of the other -- the cello played like a burst of noise, or electronic presence informed by the technique natural to the bow. The compositional practice developed by the duo is strict, bearing the marks of tension informed by the rigor of live performance. The pieces on Kithless are documents of this practice; Drift Gently Down the Frigid Tides of Sleep was recorded live at 'Activating the Medium XIII:ICE' in San Francisco on April 17, 2010. The performance extends the use of hybrid and musique concrete forms by engaging with the physical limits of the body through voluntary hypothermia, transforming the performers state and relationship to compositional tools. Under a Veil of Living Light, a staple from the 2009 East Coast tour, is a drifting of the hybrid forms expressed above, weaving in and out of each other; traces of texture, combined and re-combined. In an edition of 500 copies."
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LP
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ARBOR 094LP
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"Having Had Forgot marks a distinct departure from Sam Goldberg's past recordings, both his lush electric guitar and synth work as well as his borderline-pop project Radio People.Having Had Forgot features Sam working with a rotating ensemble of Midwestern musicians (Tiger Hatcherys Ben Billington, Mike Forbes, and Andrew Young; as well as J. Guy Laughlin, Ben Osbourne, and Jeff Host; for a total palette consisting of acoustic and electric guitar, field recording, percussion, synthesizer, saxophone, double bass, and clarinet). The result is eight careful, delicate songs; varied in instrumentation, but presenting the same elegant consideration of mood and contemplation as his solo works. Private music from a young man; a contemporary offering in the tradition of ensemble records on Windham Hill from William Ackerman and Mark Isham; the opportunity of actualizing personal moments through various actors and the unique textures they are each able to contribute to the whole. In an edition of 500 records with full color jacket and inner sleeves."
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LP
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ARBOR 138LP
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"As Concern, Gordon Ashworth has explored drone music through an inspection of the textural components of acoustic instruments and recording processes. On Cæsarean the palette presented is a singularly precise one. Using simple sources (piano, clarinet, banjo, shrutti box, and acoustic guitar), tape processing (1/4" and cassette), and reverberation, Ashworth crafts delicate tape music through transforming repetitions and obscured fidelity. The emotional and physical presence of Cæsarean is overwhelming; sounding simultaneously natural and alien. The instrumentation and field recordings are both stripped of their defining characteristics; creating a balance between the harmonic characters of both, a pure transformation empty of excess and desire. Time held in suspension. In an edition of 500 copies with black and white reverse board jackets and printed labels."
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LP
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ARBOR 111LP
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"Rene Hell and Three Legged Race investigate the space where classically outsider musical forms begin to intersect with more popular ones. Taking cues from science fiction and early electronic / tape music and translating them through the lens of minimal techno and the personal logic of bedroom recording; both creating something unclassifiable in its hybrid form. Rene Hell's four part suite Violin Petal {Auden} follows his recent LP on Type with its distinct form of digital synthesis and future-concrète; cyclic music expanding and contracting throughout a cybernetic space. The confusion of communication, control source unknown. Signals crossed along a technological drift. Robert Beatty's Three Legged Race presents a three part suite, Whipped Secrets. Investigating herein an application of early 'automatic' synthesizer music manipulated into linear form based song structure. Developing softly, the first movement sounds like a loner folk recording from a distant future time; complete with vocals, staring sad eyed across an open expanse, contemplating the state of things. Slowly, this form unravels into a more abstract and 'automatic' based territory; rhythmic and melodic staccato signals possessed with an almost intelligent logic of their own. Communication shifts from the man to his machine. In an edition of 400 copies with glossy jackets featuring images by each artist and printed inner sleeves and center labels designed by Jeff Witscher. "
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LP
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ARBOR 098LP
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$15.00
NOT IN STOCK, SPECIAL ORDER
2011 repress. "John Elliott's Outer Space project is a laboratory for electronic investigation. Acting as a continuance of the studies of mid 20th century electronic music composers such as Nik Pascal and Laurie Spiegel, Elliott's music is deeply indebted to the inner workings of the electric signal. Acting almost as a meditation, through the simple gesture of translation Elliott's process begins to reveal itself as electricity is converted into acoustic pressure and potential; the melody of physics. The six recordings on the album are each a microcosmic view into Elliott's practice; a keystone, illuminating his solo practice as well as his work as a member of Emeralds. Composed and recorded over the past three years without the use of digital synthesizers and arpeggiation; a record closely connected to a personal path, attempting to make sense, to understand one's journey. Mastered by Keith Fullerton Whitman; pressed in an edition of 650 copies on clear vinyl with full color gloss covers and heavy stock printed euro-style inner sleeves."
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2LP
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ARBOR 135LP
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"Following in the tradition of minimalist composers such as La Monte Young, Yoshi Wada, and Charlemagne Palestine, Sun Circle exemplifies a contemporary focus on long form drone music. Members Greg Davis and Zach Wallace have shown their interest in the field with extended works on Kranky and Root Strata respectively; together on Lessness, they show a deep-rooted interest in the power of simple forms. Building upon themes from their recent solo work (Davis' subtly shifting tonal work with electronic oscillators and Wallace's acoustic drone work on the glass armonica), Lessness is comprised of four side long works each exhibiting a different acoustic instrument in isolation. Exploring drums, tambouras (both rhythmic and droning), and gongs with a meditative precision, Davis and Wallace's work seems at once both mechanic and human; the product of focus, revealing a vast beauty within the subtlety of the geometric potential of sound. In an edition of 400 copies with full color matte jackets."
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LP
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ARBOR 145LP
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"Working together, but differently. Clear Of, shows Cloaked Light working within a new mode; an expanded temporal sensitivity through field recording and discrete static chords. Slow movement- revealing growth and decay at the subtlest thresholds; disappearing music with a heavy presence, a shifting sense of space, not in the room, but of the room. Pale Blue Sky's Someday, Sometime approaches a similar expansion of perception and unobscuring blur. Through tape manipulation, the inner workings of tonal relationships are placed under focus; extending time to reveal new moments; widening the view. Distorting to understand; a reorienting pause. Originally conceived to coincide with the Cloaked Light/Pale Blue Sky California tour with Pedestrian Deposit, Infinite Body, Earn, and Mirror to Mirror in January 2010; a testament to a common point and its different trajectories. Approaching the possibility. Mastered by Pete Swanson; cut at 45 rpm. In an edition of 400 copies with glossy jackets and inner sleeves."
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7"
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ARBOR 140EP
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"Ryan Garbes is the drummer of Iowa City bands such as Wet Hair, Dunebuggy, Trash Dog, and formerly Raccoo-oo-oon. His recordings under his own name represent a unique brand of solo multi-track recording with a seamless integrity; through a skillful use of instrumentation and recording technique, Garbes eschews notions of low fidelity for songs reminiscent of traditional American garage rock produced in the haze of an early '90s UK aesthetic. Genuine pop songs, cloaked in a comforting wash of reverb, as if Lou Reed had done a record for Creation; more ecstatic than obstructed, Garbes' voice is a refreshing one outside the continuum of the contemporary four-track bedroom pop. In an edition of 300 copies with full color sleeve and printed labels by Ryan."
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12"
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ARBOR 137EP
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$12.00
NOT IN STOCK, SPECIAL ORDER
"Pale Blue Sky is the new project from Mike Pollard (formerly Treetops). Shades Of Grey is the project's genesis; a long considered transition uniting the organic drone-work of the former project with compositional structures. The recordings embody a delicate sense of distance; staring out at the moving landscape obscured by the mediation of the window. Through blurred fidelity the origin of melody is placed under microscopic inquiry; an exploration into the moment of tonal interaction. Pale Blue Sky utilizes repetition and non-linear movements, attempting to reconcile simplicity, form, and sentiment through modes of difference. Placing focus on spatial concerns, as well as emotive potential, the five songs contained within are each different embodiments of the possibility of the transformative decay of remembrance. An ephemeral glimpse; the moment has already passed. For quiet, distanced listening. In an edition of 400 copies with full color glossy jackets, printed inner sleeves, and printed labels."
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