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LP
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DIGI 029LP
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Gordon Ashworth is Concern and this is his manifesto. Truth & Distance, originally released on CD in 2009 is a mini-epic -- a minor masterpiece. Within these sonic walls lies a stunning landscape, adrift in golden tones and silver siren songs. Ashworth creates beautiful, shimmering music that defies categorization. It stands on its own, droning away into the furthest reaches of the night. Using only acoustic instrumentation, Ashworth conceives pieces of music in which resonance and timbre mutate in the air and unfold naturally. Hints of piano glisten like night shadows whispering through the leaves. Strings are bowed and plucked into oblivion. Everything is turned into a pile of reverb. Everyone is a ghost. The title track starts with frayed edges and continually dials back, trying not to fall apart. Ashworth's skill in wrangling discordant sounds out of his array of acoustics seems to grow as the piece flows along. Daunting as the seemingly endless layers of droning tones may be, it's the all-enveloping nature of this music that makes it so engaging. Like hearing Basinski destroy and rework Peter Broderick's deepest compositions, Truth & Distance feels familiar while sounding new. As the final, looping piano chords of "Heartsink" disintegrate into oblivion, Concern has gone all in. This is music that trades in immediacy for reservation and restraint. Ashworth is able to combine all these elements into towering aural monuments that he scatters through the air and down into the soil. This new vinyl edition features extended cuts of all three pieces from the original CD, adding 10 minutes of new music that pushes the album to another level. In addition, there is all new art and it is cut by Berlin's D+M. Limited to 500 copies only.
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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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