Browse by Label: PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)

Artist:	ORSI, FABIO
Title:	Stand Before Me, Oh My Soul
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	CIRCA 111CD

The Preservation label presents Stand Before Me, Oh My Soul from Italian composer Fabio Orsi. Fabio's prolific output has had him heralded as a master of modern ambience, creating rich, freeform atmospheres with organic instrumentation and processed sounds. Though known for momentous pieces of hypnotic power, this work marks a dynamic new turn in Fabio's sound. The force of his composition takes more of an overt stance on Stand Before Me, Oh My Soul. The raw and primal pulse at the heart of his music is writ large here with a punk mind-set, unleashing a heady mass of guitars against a backdrop of cavernous, shimmering distortion and crashing drums (courtesy of Rich Baker, who also performs regularly with Nadja's Aidan Baker). It also boasts a bristling sense of lysergic, hazy melody. Brutal and glimmering, dark and beautiful, Stand Before Me, Oh My Soul drops loud and large in pursuit of pure, dissonant bliss. This is the first in a new limited edition CD series from Preservation called Circa. 300 copies only will be available of each release in the series and each will feature a design by Mark Gowing. Each design will be realized using a specially-created abstract alphabet of shapes, determined by artist, title and catalog number for something both fixed and random.

Artist:	AREA C
Title:	Map Of Circular Thought
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	CIRCA 211CD

The Preservation label presents Map Of Circular Thought from Providence, Rhode Island's Area C. Area C is the music project for composer and multi-media artist Erik Carlson. Carlson has recently completed the soundtrack to a National Geographic documentary on New Orleans in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, and has worked on several projects for NASA's Space Grant Consortium along with numerous audio, multi-media and public art installations. Map Of Circular Thought follows several acclaimed works including 2009's The Planetarium Project, described by The Wire magazine as "inspiring." Map Of Circular Thought is a set of meditative, contemplative pieces -- a sonic rendering of the connection between memory and the present. Using minimal rhythm and melody to form constellations of fixed tones, these compositions burst with flickering sonic detail to create constant flux among the patterns he creates. The warm, analog sounds on Map Of Circular Thought -- made using guitar, organ, keyboard and a drum machine -- engage and play with states of consciousness in listening, and in particular found inspiration in the abstract dreamscapes of UK electronic pioneers Seefeel. Carlson also traces a line back to minimalist composers Terry Riley and Steve Reich, and shares a kinship with the transfixing qualities of more recent acolytes such as William Basinski and Philip Jeck. Map Of Circular Thought mainlines to the mind but is also a visceral, tingling thrill for the ears. This album is the second in a new limited edition CD series from Preservation called Circa. 300 copies only will be available of each release in the series and each will feature a design by Mark Gowing. Each design will be realized using a specially-created abstract alphabet of shapes, determined by artist, title and catalog number for something both fixed and random.

Artist:	DEEP MAGIC
Title:	Lucid Thought
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	CIRCA 311CD

The Preservation label presents Lucid Thought, the second full-length album from California's Deep Magic. Deep Magic is the solo project of Alex Gray, who currently plays in tropical-psych jam team Sun Araw and has also contributed to works by Pocahaunted and Black Eagle Child. Since releasing his debut album Solar Meditations for cult label Not Not Fun, Alex has since gone on to record a number of longform pieces, mainly on small cassette releases including for his own Deep Tapes label in his creation of sonic states of heightened awareness. The panoramic, lyrical atmospheres on Lucid Thought shine in widescreen, filled with complex, cosmic tableaus cut by zones of ambience, dub filters and folk reverie. Evocative and sun-bleached instrumentation of finger-picked guitar, synth, percussion, various keyboards and vocal tones lift Lucid Thought into a euphoric state glowing with microtonal melodies and continually-shifting, shimmering waves of psychedelia. This is bliss in delirium, ecstatically executed with true focus and clarity of purpose. Lucid Thought was mastered by fellow celestial traveller, Sean McCann. Lucid Thought is the third work in a new limited edition CD series from Preservation called Circa. Only 300 copies of each release in the series will be available and will feature a design by Mark Gowing. Each design for 2011 will be realized using a specially-created abstract alphabet of shapes, determined by artist, title and catalog number for something both fixed and random.

Artist:	QUIET EVENINGS
Title:	Transcending Spheres
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	CIRCA 411CD

The Preservation label presents Transcending Spheres, the debut full-length album from Georgia's Quiet Evenings. In a little over two years, the duo that comprise Quiet Evenings -- Grant and Rachel Evans -- have become two of the most prolific and active artists in the American underground. Each also has solo projects: Grant's Nova Scotian Arms and Rachel's Motion Sickness Of Time Travel. Between those as well as Quiet Evenings, they've amassed well over 50 releases for various labels in various editions. They also co-run the Hooker Vision label, clocking up a similar amount of releases for other kindred spirits. With minimal instrumentation of guitars and synthesizers as well as voice, the pieces on Transcending Spheres curl out to seize a moment, then carry it forward with beauty and grace. Far from the realm of pure ambient drift, subtle forces build within their disarming restraint to give the album a vital pulse and provide a stunning balance between light and shade. Quiet Evenings inhabit a ghostly space of unique elegance, and as this highly-spirited work's title suggests, this is a duo that can carry their craft well beyond standard shapes. In a lovely twist of serendipity, Transcending Spheres was mastered by long-time friend and musical mentor Mitchell Turner, Music Professor at the college where Grant and Rachel first met and began making music together. Transcending Spheres is the fourth work in a new limited edition CD series from Preservation called Circa. Only 300 copies of each release in the series will be available and will feature a design by Mark Gowing. Each design for 2011 will be realized using a specially-created abstract alphabet of shapes, determined by artist, title and catalog number for something both fixed and random.

Artist:	MOHANNA, NICKOLAS
Title:	Reflectors
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	CIRCA 511CD

The Preservation label presents the second album from New York's Nickolas Mohanna. Also working as a visual artist, Nickolas draws unique forms from the wealth of sounds found in New York's complex sprawl and imbues them with feeling and subtlety. The sounds on Reflectors buzz with rich detail and rhythmic interplay for a work alive with beauty and mystery in its atmospheric reach. Previously living in San Francisco for a number of years, Nickolas studied with noted electronic composer Bob Ostertag, whose use of sampling and tape manipulation informs his own work considerably. Thinking of Reflectors' pieces as "tone poems," Nickolas juxtaposes field recordings with guitar and synthesizer treatments to refract the natural world through sci-fi vision. Finding the ground between the concr�te and cosmic in summoning a curious, compelling aura throughout, Reflectors is a fascinating step in exploratory music's ongoing dialogue between now and then. Reflectors is the fifth and penultimate work in the limited edition CD series from Preservation called Circa for 2011. Only 300 copies of each release in the series will be available, featuring a design by Mark Gowing. Each design for 2011 will be realized using a specially-created abstract alphabet of shapes, determined by artist, title and catalog number for something both fixed and random. Circa will return in 2012 with a new design model. Mastered by James Plotkin.

Artist:	MARTIN & JUSTIN WRIGHT, AARON
Title:	Light Poured Out Of Our Bones
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	CIRCA 611CD

The Preservation label presents Light Poured Out Of Our Bones, the debut for the pairing of Aaron Martin and Justin Wright. Aaron Martin is a multi-instrumentalist who has previously recorded three acclaimed albums on Preservation; Almond, River Water and Chautauqua. He has developed an idiosyncratic, singular and engaging style with his electro-acoustic compositions tracing an arc for a new kind of Americana steeped in cinematic ambience and alien wonder. Justin Wright is better known as Expo '70. As Expo '70, Wright has a long string of recordings dedicated to pursuing extended meditations for solo guitar that draw upon Krautrock, drone and space exploration. In blooding their collaboration on tape, recording Light Poured Out Of Our Bones at Wright's home studio in Kansas City, Missouri, Martin and Wright combine for a work set deep with epic, foreboding resonance. Angling between wired and taut guitar serrations and slithering, loping synth textures mingling with cello, organ, banjo, singing bowls and voice, these pieces trip out on their own psychedelic reverie with a dark kind of ecstasy. Compelling and hypnotic, this is music conjuring strange dream sensations to wholly succumb to. Light Poured Out Of Our Bones is the sixth and final work in the limited edition CD series from Preservation called Circa for 2011. Only 300 copies of each release in the series will be available, featuring a design by Mark Gowing. Each design for 2011 will be realized using a specially-created abstract alphabet of shapes, determined by artist, title and catalog number for something both fixed and random. Circa will return in 2012 with a new design model.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Motion - Movement in Australian Sound
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	PRE 003CD

Featuring: Pimmon, Alan Lamb, Joyce Hinterding, Tim Koch, Oren Ambarchi, Clue To Kalo, Scott Horscroft, Cray, Minit, Matthew Thomas, Qua, Chris, Smith, Ray Diode, Sue Harding, Brendan Walls, Pretty Boy Crossover, GCTTCATT, Dworzec, Julian Knowles, Magmafinder, Peter Blamey. "2-CD overview of 22 artists representing Australia's burgeoning terrain of electronic and experimental music. From Scott Horscroft's mesmerising piece for eleven guitars, the sublimely sweet, driving tones of Pretty Boy Crossover, Sue Harding's melodies from dot matrix printers to renown veteran Alan Lamb's awe-inducing casting of field recordings from the West Australian outback, Motion casts wide to expose some of the most creative and fascinating sonic brilliance Australia has to offer. To ensure some kind of cohesiveness with such a diverse array of artists, as well as fresh, original material, each act was asked to contribute a track with an open-ended brief in mind -- exploring ideas of motion in some way through sound. The resulting overall quality shows a depth of thought and feeling from some seriously engaging talent, pushing boundaries as well as coming up with some most moving music."

Artist:	ONEIL, TARA JANE
Title:	Bones
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 004CD

"The Preservation label presents Bones, from Lousiville, Kentucky born Tara Jane ONeil. After playing bass with Rodan, pioneers of post-rock and post-hardcore, the long-respected and much-lauded ONeil has formed bands like The Sonora Pine and Retsin. Consistently on the move, ONeil records all over the US, from ballrooms in Louisville, apartments in New York to rural cabins. Similarly, there's a wandering spirit to her music, her songs an engaging mixture of folk, pop, ambience and electronic sounds, tropicana and melodies that span references from Joni Mitchell to Brian Eno. Bones is a collection featuring new material from ONeil, often at her most stripped back and full of her raw, alluring essence. Her delicate, vivid acoustic guitar playing is a feature of tracks such as 'The Poisoned Mine' and 'Without Push', her subdued, enigmatic vocals floating over the top in airy layers of guitar, strings and piano. Other tracks showcase new directions -- her burgeoning interest in electronica to allow for new shapes and rhythms in her songs (the beat-laden, trippy melodics of 'Enter This House' and her reworking of an earlier track, 'Bullhorn Moon') and found sounds that she turns into hypnotic instrumentals."

Artist:	GRAND SALVO
Title:	The Temporal Wheel
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 005CD

2005 release. The Preservation label presents The Temporal Wheel, the third album from Melbourne's Grand Salvo. Grand Salvo is the work of singer-songwriter Paddy Mann. Grand Salvo's debut album, 1642-1727, and its follow-up, River Road, earned him rave reviews and a solid following at home and beyond for his stark, sensitive and beautiful songs. After a spell living in Europe, Paddy returned to Australia and began work on another album he'd dreamt up while away. A set of songs that acts as a children's storybook, the album became cursed with too many recording problems, and Paddy decided to shelve it. While that project will eventually see the light of day, its plagued nature ironically became the motivation for The Temporal Wheel. Paddy resolved to make an album with more spontaneity and gut feeling than ever before. Holing up in Tony Dupe's (Archer Prewitt, Via Tania, Holly Throsby) tiny house-cum-studio at Saddleback Mountain on the beautiful New South Wales South Coast, over two sessions in two days, Paddy recorded intensively. With ideas forming on arrival, Paddy steeled himself to write impulsively soon after waking in the morning. He would find himself in a curious, reflective way, thinking about the order of things and how they inexplicably change with the passing of time. These are songs for simple moments, moments that grow into revelations of transcendence. Surrounding the core interplay between Paddy's rich, oaken voice and his acoustic guitar, his subtle and intuitive orchestral arrangements -- cello, trumpet, glockenspiel, harps and various percussion -- keep the easy rolling, classic feel of his songs, which also ring with sparkling creativity. The Temporal Wheel is an album of poignant emotional candour set in stunningly intimate atmospheres. Housed in a limited edition packaging with a unique design.

Artist:	SADDLEBACK
Title:	Everything's A Love Letter + Everything's Open To..
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 006XCD

..Interpretation. Saddleback is the solo project of producer Tony Dup�. In many ways, with its warm and exploratory craft, 2004's Everything's A Love Letter was the culmination of the varying strands in Tony's musical life contained in one special debut. Tony first came to notice in Glovebox, who put an ethereal, ambient twist on the indie-pop scene as far back as the early '90s. Glovebox's swirling sound has been as unhurried as its release schedule, though no matter how spare their output, each album has always found a warm reception. The group were even invited to make a record with U.S. independent music luminary Kramer, who at the time had already produced records for the likes of Low, Palace Brothers and Galaxie 500. As time went on, Tony would tinker with the Glovebox sound by using a rotating group of players with each recording and eventually started to produce records himself and sow the seeds for Saddleback. Tony moved into an old disused nunnery on the South Coast of NSW and into production, fashioning a recording studio within the huge 18-bedroom building. As Saddleback, Dup� had unanchored his atmospheric musings from Glovebox's pop roots into new territory. Everything's A Love Letter unfolds with small sonic gestures and gradually shifting layers of quiet sound, its fluttering, winding arrangements building into something altogether mesmerizing. Blending guitar, piano, strings and brass into its mild electronic realm brings up compelling dimensions between classic composition and abstraction -- a tender melodicism that draws on jazz, folk, pop and ambient electronica. His affecting style brought many plaudits, furthered by the release of Saddleback's second album Night Maps. This reissue edition features interpretations of five of the original tracks from acclaimed Preservation artists Aaron Martin, Grand Salvo, Post, Early Songs and Richard Skelton. They add to an already fascinating and beautiful listen. Deluxe packaging in a unique design.

Artist:	BASHO-JUNGHANS, STEFFEN
Title:	Unknown Music II - Transwarp Meditation
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 007CD

2005 release. The Preservation label presents Unknown Music II - Transwarp Meditation, from Steffen Basho-Junghans. The passion for exploratory acoustic music has been with Steffen Basho-Junghans for a long time. Based in Berlin, Steffen has been one of the most searching artists in the ever-increasingly loose folk idiom for over two decades. His work on the six and twelve-string guitar makes him a modern-day counterpart to great trail-blazers John Fahey and Robbie Basho, from whom he takes his name as a creative talisman. While experimentation is a feature of Steffen's playing, the soul of acoustic guitar tradition is there in equal measure. With boundless imagination, his technique takes in American folk, Eastern raga and Western classical harmonics but also resonates with the inspiring power of free jazz. His Unknown Music series features what he describes as his most personal excursions yet, containing some of his most stirring and unique compositions. While some pieces are relentlessly intense, there's an undeniable beauty at their core, found as equally in those that curl out with complex, but softer melodic measure. The percussive qualities of his sound heighten its hypnotic feel in a space created from, and for, pure feeling above all. Unknown Music II is much more than just a set of psychedelic overtures. It's a work of deep spiritual vision that comes from having travelled far down an exceptionally individual path.

Artist:	EDDIE MARCON
Title:	Shining On Graveposts
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 008CD

2005 release. The Preservation label presents Shining On Graveposts, the debut album for Japanese duo Eddie Marcon. In the all-female duo Coa, Eddie Corman trades on volume and velocity in a howling rock beast that would well fit the bill soundtracking an apocalyptic horror movie. Both Eddie and Marcon first played together in an early incarnation of LSD-March, pysch-blasted legends of the Japanese underground. Combining their names to form a new endeavor into Japanese acid folk, Eddie and Marcon -- as Eddie Marcon -- have been working in much quieter tones to make delicate, gorgeous and esoteric music. Shining On Graveposts cradles the mysterious, melancholic air so unique to Japanese music in intimate spaces. The graceful arc of Eddie's guitar melodies entwined with the shuffle and swirl of Marcon's percussion are the humble beginnings of rich atmospheres. Falling between half-tuned dreams and stark, crystalline beauty, these songs are rich with warmth, shot into space-y terrain with tender eccentricity and otherworldly charm. Eddie's voice is a hushed, tingling thing, rising on occasion from its gentle soul to a more sweeping majesty. The subdued glow of Shining On Graveposts is enhanced with luminaries of Japan's ever-fertile music underground including appearances from members of the Boredoms, Coa and Test Pattern. Eddie Marcon exist in a space that is strangely timeless. With Shining On Graveposts, they conjure music with true feeling -- immediately gorgeous, but with an allure that might be familiar, but just out of reach.

Artist:	MARTIN, AARON
Title:	Almond
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 009CD

2006 release. The Preservation label presents Almond, the debut album from Kansas multi-instrumentalist Aaron Martin. Martin started learning to play cello at the relatively late age of 17. His minimal, austere playing style remains a hallmark of his sound, having added a spectrum of instrumentation and a looper pedal to take his pieces into a more kaleidoscopic realm. On Almond, you'll hear guitar, lap steel, banjo, piano, ukelele, flute, toys and many more instruments and sound sources alongside the cello. Everything on Almond is played by Aaron, except for one solitary sample. His experimental-collage style builds loops into beguiling song forms of folkish charm and emotional resonance -- similar to the uncanny pop sensibility fostered by acts such as The Books, Neutral Milk Hotel and Olivia Tremor Control. In their mesmerizing way, they ring in the brain like a partially-faded memory that stays with you, gradually revealing itself in full. Almond swells with joy, melancholy and whimsy in a kind of warm chemistry that's hard to pin down. Limited edition special package design.

Artist:	POST
Title:	Post
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 010CD

2006 release. The Preservation label presents the self-titled debut album from Melbourne's Post. Post is the solo guise of James Wilkinson, who has gleefully cracked the ground between free jazz and punk in Bucketrider and made sonic cinema with the electro-dub-hip-hop fusion of High Pass Filter. He's also provided innovative sound design for the internationally-acclaimed puppet theater company Snuff Puppets, and it's his adventurous spirit that runs free through Post's pop persona. Post's playful but stirring sense of composition makes for a set where bouncy dancefloor-bound fun, retro-futurist funk, space-y jazz noir and ambient atmospheres face-off at fizzing tangents. Strings, guitars, recorders and piano on the album were recorded at David Bridie's studio The Enormodome, with further creating, recording and mixing taking place at Wilkinson's own Wilkinsound studio. The final mixes were done with Fran�ois T�taz, who has worked on remixes for Aphex Twin and composed the soundtrack for Australian film Wolf Creek (2005). The array of collaborators also includes renowned experimenters Anthony Pateras (piano), Robin Fox (electronics) and drummer Steve Heather (drums). For all its smarts, Post is the sound of a man in love with the worlds of sonics and song, and therein lies its warm, immediate appeal. Limited edition special package design.

Artist:	SADDLEBACK
Title:	Night Maps
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 011CD

2007 release. Saddleback is the solo project of producer Tony Dup�. Since the release of Saddleback's acclaimed 2004 debut Everything's A Love Letter, Tony has found increasing demand for his touch behind the recording desk, most notably with Sydney's Holly Throsby. Tony's recording desk for this record was located in his Kangaroo Valley residence on the south coast of New South Wales (he has since re-located to Berlin). The remote surroundings speak heavily of the sounds he creates for Saddleback, and as its title suggests, Night Maps has a darker sense of beauty than its predecessor. The uncanny atmospheres are the result of contrasting feelings at play. Sounds push and pull against each other, then unite into a mysterious force that is by turns desolate, fragile, visceral and translucent. These abstracted orchestrations featuring guitar, strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion and electronic textures work in the cracks between jazz, folk, post-rock and classical, claiming a space between dark and light, both shimmering and haunting. Night Maps is breathtaking, artful work. Deluxe packaging in a unique design.

Artist:	EARLY SONGS
Title:	Wind Wound
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 012CD

2007 release. The Preservation label presents the debut album from Glasgow's Early Songs. Early Songs is the work of Glaswegian David Scott. David has been playing guitar for nearly 15 years after hearing his first musical inspiration in the lyrical country-blues of fingerpicker Mississippi John Hurt. The second turning point for David's work came after hearing the violin playing of Dirty Three's Warren Ellis. The instrumental trio prompted him to leave singing behind, pick up the fiddle and create emotive instrumental music of his own. Using more instruments as he continued to write, David went on to score music for locally-produced films while forming the songs that would eventually make up Wind Wound. David wrote and recorded in his bedroom with the window open, and it's the open air that's a shining quality of Wind Wound. Disarmingly spare, Wind Wound's pastoral atmosphere is generous in scope and warmth, reflecting David's keenest writing motivations -- patterns and cycles, movement and momentum and recurring feeling -- and displaying them with wide-eyed wonder and joy. His guitar-playing swoons and breaks, aching with drama and tenderness, also going on more light-fingered, breezy trails. The songs were taken to Glasgow engineer Andy Miller, who has worked with Mogwai, Songs: Ohia, Life Without Buildings, and Sons & Daughters, to bring an expansive feel to David's music while preserving its innate intimacy. Limited repress in deluxe packaging with a unique design.

Artist:	CARTER & ROBERT HORTON DUO, TOM
Title:	Monsters Of Felt
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 013CD

2007 release. The Preservation label presents Monsters Of Felt, the third collaboration between Tom Carter and Robert Horton. Robert Horton's musical exploits are diverse, heady and spans over three decades. From his early punk days to joining various groups in pursuit of free jazz, drone and even psychedelic hillbilly, Horton is happily hard to pin-down. He also makes his own instruments. One found regularly across the 30-plus releases he's been involved with since 2005 is the "boot," a four-stringed instrument that plays like an otherworldly dobro or slide guitar. Tom Carter has been a lightning rod-like figure for the American psychedelic, folk and experimental underground scenes since forming one of the country's central cosmic travellers in Charalambides. Carter has since spread his wings into solo work and collaborations with the likes of Bardo Pond, Tower Recordings and Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore. However, it's the pairing with Robert Horton that emerges most frequently in his busy schedule, as they continue to foster their pairing into a singular kind of chemistry. This album hits a zone both fierce and lulling at once. The radiating undertow of Horton's sonic manipulations -- including sound sources from cassettes, field recordings, computer, bass and the "boot" -- accompanies Carter's re-routing of American guitar traditions into mantras of trance and white light. The set also features appearances from kindred spirits and free-folk favorites Brad and Eden Rose, along with Eastern instrument journeymen Henry Kuntz and Michael Shannon. It all adds up to Monsters Of Felt being yet another exciting step for two most intrepid musicians. Limited edition deluxe packaging featuring unique, award-winning design.

Artist:	MARTIN, AARON
Title:	River Water
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 015CD

2008 release. The Preservation label presents River Water, the second album from multi-instrumentalist and Kansas resident Aaron Martin. Since the release of his debut album Almond in 2006, Aaron has been lauded worldwide for songs of unique warmth, whimsical feeling and charm. The recognition Almond created led Martin to contribute to various compilations and split releases as well as a collaboration with Dutch electronic sound artist Machinefabriek. With River Water, Aaron takes a compelling step into a deeper territory of contrasting moods and introspection, marking a decided shift from the work that defined Almond, and at its heart is the idea of transition itself. The sense of wonder in sound and arrangement that marks Aaron's music is still in place, though River Water is ripe with new sensibilities that take it into an otherworldly realm. The surge and flow of these pieces stem from exotic instrumentation shaped into hypnotic reveries that can take on gradual or sudden shifts. In this strange, curious, beautiful and ever-changing emotional landscape, is a look into the heart of the soul. River Water distills an intensely personal world with greater resonance and a rare passion. Features deluxe packaging with unique, award-winning design.

Artist:	TAN OR BOIL
Title:	Seamstress In A Suitcase
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 016CD

2008 release. The Preservation label presents the debut album from U.S. artist Tan Or Boil. Tan Or Boil -- a pun on the name of bratty short stop from those 1970s Bad News Bears films that stuck -- is the alias of the Pittsburgh-born Jason Bacasa. At the start of his songwriting attempts, Jason's continual travels kept him to just an acoustic guitar and 4-track recorder as part of his luggage and he would write and record spontaneously, piecing the various fragments into song when settled for longer periods. His songs still hold onto that fragmented, on-the-fly style with a surreal fervor often running through his lyrics alongside the hushed intimacy that inevitably comes from late-night recording in apartment buildings. A CD-R of six songs which Jason had handed out to around 60 lucky souls witnessing his support slot for Joanna Newsom (he has also played with Cat Power and Devendra Banhart) somehow found its way to Preservation's Andrew Khedoori. Jason was keen to extend on the bare-bones acoustic style of his songs but had no musical compadres to help out. Andrew then enlisted the unique, multi-instrumental wares of fellow Preservation artist Aaron Martin, with both Aaron and Andrew shaping arrangements with digital files going back and forth across the globe. These songs span both the baroque and the exotic within its folky realm, and even get beat-happy courtesy of Melbourne-based electronic artist Part Timer. The album was then mixed by Tony Dup� aka Saddleback. A raw and strange beauty still exists at the core of Seamstress In A Suitcase, though its imaginative, gentle kaleidoscopic spin enhances that feeling as well as takes it somewhere else entirely. Limited edition deluxe booklet-style packaging featuring unique, award-winning design.

Artist:	CARTER & CHRISTIAN KIEFER, TOM
Title:	From The Great American Songbook
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 017CD

2008 release. This second collaborative work from Tom Carter and Christian Kiefer is an expansive and ambitious recasting of American music now in the public domain. The influence of the songs collected here is long and widespread for their style and lyricism, forging a rich tradition and ever-evolving history. With their interpretations, Carter and Kiefer have taken the songs that have seeped into their souls and extended upon them in such a way that brings something entirely new to their original ideas. It's something that's entirely theirs in spite of such source material, and with that, From The Great American Songbook brilliantly reveals a true hallmark of American music invention. So, we have the infamous murder ballad "Pretty Polly," the comic "Camptown Races," the funereal "Will The Circle Be Unbroken," the outlaw tale of "Jesse James," the depression piece "Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues," the ragtime "The Entertainer" and the doomed love trysts of "Go Dig My Grave (Railroad Boy)" and "The Coo-Coo Bird." Carter and Kiefer have taken the spirit of these as a starting point for their spectral guitar improvisations, then fleshed them out with piano, percussion, bass and drums. In this thrillingly vast sonic terrain are moments of foreboding, tenderness, melancholy and gut-wrenching rawness. Two of Kiefer's longtime cohorts, Scott Leftridge and Chip Conrad played bass and drums respectively, while Califone's Ben Massarella handled percussion. Also contributing is a host of American musicians including Tony Conrad, James Jackson Toth, Glenn Jones, and Sharron Kraus. Christian Kiefer is a musician and songwriter with a varied and prolific history. His 2007 album Dogs & Donkeys featured the talents of Wilco's Nils Cline, Low's Alan and Mimi Sparhawk and The Band's Garth Hudson. Tom Carter is a member of Charalambides and similarly engages himself in many collaborations, including work with Thurston Moore, Bardo Pond and Robert Horton. Liner notes by Tony Conrad, Tim Rutili (Califone), James Jackson Toth (Wooden Wand), Tetuzi Akiyama, Sharron Kraus, Byron Coley, Sean Smith and Glenn Jones (Cul De Sac). Limited edition deluxe packaging featuring unique, award-winning design.

Artist:	SKELTON, RICHARD
Title:	Marking Time (Reissue)
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	PRE 018XCD

The Preservation label presents the reissue edition of Marking Time from UK artist Richard Skelton. Richard has recorded in various guises -- as Clouwbeck, Heidika, Carousell and A Broken Consort. Marking Time was his first work released under his own name, and also the first on a label other than his own, Sustain-Release. Through the prolific output on Sustain-Release, Richard stamped a singular vision with his music: a sound that is at once complex and elemental in its questing nature, corporal feel and ultimately life-affirming quality. Marking Time represented a new beginning for Richard, finding him at his most direct and intimate, slowly turning on relatively bare textures of bowed strings, piano and guitar. A meditation on loss and the passing of time, its measure of transcendence accumulates in instrumental passages that work like gestures drifting towards a sense of space both rich and real. In reviewing Marking Time, The Wire wrote: "Not a single note is wasted ... utterly beautiful." After being one of The Wire's notable albums for 2008, it's something he continued to explore on his follow-up for the Type label, Landings (TYPE 055CD), in 2010 -- another similarly acclaimed album. And as with Marking Time, it is with his music that Richard impacts on and affects that environment, by documenting his ever-changing shape in it by means not only uniquely personal, but universal in a devastatingly beautiful way. This new edition of Marking Time features a new piece called "Ford," specially recorded to complement the album's existing pieces in this updated version featuring a reworking of the original artwork by Mark Gowing. Limited edition of 400 copies only.

Artist:	MANN, OLIVER
Title:	The Possum Wakes At Night
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 019CD

2008 release. The Preservation label presents The Possum Wakes At Night, the second album from Melbourne's Oliver Mann. Oliver's background as an artist partly began in classical music and opera -- he sings with the Victorian Opera and curates an annual Schubert recital. However, he also spent many years home-recording his songs as well as playing them in pubs, often accompanied by a compelling yarn during sets. His love for telling a story transfers to performing for children at his local library, playing a defining role in his unique take on song. Add to that a love of Elvis Presley, golden-era musicals and early blues, and you have in Oliver a vision pushing past the point of merely eccentric into the shiningly enigmatic. The Possum Wakes At Night is a vast yet intimately detailed work, both in sound and feeling. Oliver's voice can shoot from a booming baritone to a soprano with an elasticity that plays into the arrangements of his songs, shaping their folkish hue into boundless realms with a whimsical zeal. It's a place to imagine drums that sound like fireworks, classic rock and classical timbres taking flight together, operatic lament couched in blues feeling and gospel jigs to light up any lounge room. Appearing on the album are Dirty Three's Jim White, Karl Scullin (the man behind Kes Band), harpsichord player David O'Brien and Grand Salvo, otherwise known as Paddy Mann and also Oliver's brother. No less than three soprano singers -- Fiona Clarke, Monica Sonand and Jordina Howe -- accompany Oliver throughout as well, who aside from his own keening voice, fluidly moves from guitar to harmonica and percussion in pursuit of a widescreen pop vision unlike any other. The Possum Wakes At Night, with its awe-struck, uplifting atmosphere is an album altogether infectious -- a unique chronicling of pure joy. Limited edition packaging featuring unique, award-winning design.

Artist:	ORSI & VALERIO COSI, FABIO
Title:	Thoughts Melt In The Air
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 020CD

The Preservation label presents Thoughts Melt In The Air, the second album from the pairing of Italian composers Fabio Orsi and Valerio Cosi. Both Orsi and Cosi have become recognized widely internationally for their prolific solo output and kindred spirits in creating momentous soundscapes that ring with lyrical feeling. Still in his early 20s, Valerio Cosi has released a seemingly endless stream of work that swirls around giddily in a sweep of heady free-jazz (his main instrument is tenor saxophone), homespun psychedelia and Krautrock rhythm. Similarly unfaltering in his release schedule, Fabio Orsi's work draws from a more electronic palette with a quieter, pastoral scope featuring gentle washes of piano, guitar and percussion. Over these four extended pieces, the pair reveals an intimate detailing of sound while going widescreen in pursuit of the epic. Wistful, yearning and melancholic, Thoughts Melt In the Air traces the celestial, emotive sound of enigmatic 4AD acts This Mortal Coil and Cocteau Twins, perfectly pitched between dream-pop vibes and deep ambience. Moreover, it harks back to the absorbing, meditative qualities of Popol Vuh and classic-period Eno, often coupled with the primal and hypnotic tension of rock 'n roll in its pulse. Whatever the elements, Thoughts Melt In The Air altogether represents a great meeting of minds.

Artist:	PIMMON
Title:	Smudge Another Yesterday
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 021CD

The Preservation label presents Smudge Another Yesterday from Sydney's Pimmon. Pimmon is the alias for electronic composer Paul Gough. In the last decade, Pimmon has forged an international reputation for creating dense, challenging and engaging electronic music. This release picks up and goes further from the point where the acclaimed Secret Sleeping Birds left off. Smudge Another Yesterday is an exploration of the song behind the noise; the secret whispers hidden in the static. Within these vast and spacious works are endless fragments shaped and distended into magnetic states of subtle movement and pulse. From beautiful, foreboding pieces sung by hidden choirs to crackling, lava-flow like ambience, the mood swings of Smudge Another Yesterday are steeped in bristling commotion and stirring intimacy. It is a startling return from an individual and distinct artist. Smudge Another Yesterday was mastered by renown Italian composer Giuseppe Ielasi. Pimmon has previously collaborated with other celebrated artists of his field -- including Fennesz, Oren Ambarchi, Kid606 and Keith Rowe -- and has recorded for various labels around the world including Tigerbeat6 and Fat Cat.

Artist:	MILLER, EVAN
Title:	Beeswax Ephemera
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 022CD

The Preservation label presents Beeswax Ephemera from Iowa City guitarist Evan Miller. With one eye on the future and one on the past, his playing has considerable technical and abstract expanse, though retains a wonderful melodic sensibility up front. Evan's experimental leanings give Beeswax Ephemera an idiosyncratic quality that mark an inventive new talent in the world of artists taking guitar music into exciting new directions. These nominally earthy compositions take flight with the undeniable spirit of country-blues and early Takoma folk recordings from the likes of John Fahey, but also journey into more surreal ruminations for a rapturous work sitting somewhere between down-home, mysterious and timeless. After taking piano and clarinet lessons as a child, Evan acquired his first six-string at 14, though it stayed propped against a wall for a time until the age-old spur of competitive teenage boys made him pick it up and start playing. It was a quick transition from aping FM radio rock staples to fingerpicking folk, via a copy of Stephan Grossman's instruction classic Country-Blues Guitar book passed on by his father. Its influence still looms large: The closing track on Beeswax Ephemera is a dynamic take on Furry Lewis' blues classic "I Will Turn Your Money Green" that also finds room for a blistering snatch of electric guitar, rolling clarinet lines and sleigh bells by its end. Beeswax Ephemera was originally self-released by Evan in a handmade edition of 150, primarily sold on tour through the United Kingdom. This new Preservation edition has been mastered by former Yellow Swans member Pete Swanson and also features a suite of new pieces that display an even newer breadth in Evan's style, "Three Visions of Stylites."

Artist:	RATTI, NICOLA
Title:	Ode
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 023CD

The Preservation label presents Ode, the third album from Italy's Nicola Ratti. The former guitarist of self-described "math-jazz-rock trio" Pin Pin Sugar, Nicola first started recording solo works around the same time of their demise. He has also collaborated with Andrea Belfi and producer and engineer Giuseppe Ielasi in the duo Bellows. His is a deceptively languid, disarming sound of small and gentle gestures and loping rhythms, often repeated and subtly shifting in an impressionistic vision founded on traditional elements. Merging guitar, piano and double bass with percussion, environmental sounds and occasional voice, Nicola constructs songs that by turns float, swell and envelop in magnetic fashion. A piercing tenderness remains at the core of his work, though on Ode there is a more expansive palette at play for something that approaches a pure sense of grace in the sense of space and suspended atmosphere created. It's an ingratiating, personal language Nicola has been quietly developing, reaching the point with Ode where it's blossomed into something truly special.

Artist:	GRAND SALVO
Title:	Soil Creatures
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 024CD

The Preservation label presents Soil Creatures, the fifth album from Grand Salvo. The name under which Melbourne singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Paddy Mann records and performs, Grand Salvo has quietly and unassumingly developed a body of work that has inspired both hardcore devotion and more recently, wider recognition, stemming from his previous album, Death. The ambitious fairytale orchestration widely received rave reviews. With Soil Creatures, Grand Salvo has returned with no less scope but sits within quieter surroundings. This gorgeous set of songs revolves around delicate guitar, strings and harp along with other added nuances that confirms Mann's master's touch in arranging. By turns whimsical, wistful and wanting, Soil Creatures beds down in the elemental things of life -- the physical and spiritual -- that play on memory, as well as time's fading ways and what grows in place of what's lost in its cycle. It has a filmic sensibility with lyrics that border on free-association with its imagery, ultimately forming crystal clear connections between the everyday and the divine. Featured on Soil Creatures is the long-time vocal foil in Grand Salvo, Luluc's Zoe Randell, and cellist Jessica Venables (Jessica Says, Sly Hats). Yet again with Soil Creatures, Grand Salvo has engaged a depth of feeling to a most unique and affecting level. It's another affirmation of a true talent in Australia.

Artist:	CAETHUA
Title:	The Long Afternoon of Earth
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	PRE 025CD

The Preservation label presents The Long Afternoon of Earth, from Caethua. Caethua is the recording project for singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Clare Adrienne Cameron Hubbard. Hubbard has been prolific over several years with a wide range of releases spanning folk, experimental, ambient and hip hop. The Long Afternoon of Earth is made up of two separate EP-length sets of songs, both different in style but connected by themes -- family, place, escape and remembrance. The first set, "No Man's Land," (approximately 27 minutes long) is acoustic-based, with songs haunting in their hypnotic way, finding common ground between the rustic and spectral in the spell they cast. Hubbard's surroundings play deeply within the realm of her thoughts, with lyrics both unvarnished and emotionally shading in the way they portray experience both real and imagined. The second set, "Into The Dog-Dayed Night," (approximately 28 minutes long) is also stark, but yet another spin on Hubbard's otherworldly songs. Piano, guitar, raw beats and almost industrial-type textures alchemically fuse for an altogether different mood -- more theatrical, lamenting and spooked. Both sets come together here in the kind of purity and fortitude that underline Caethua's true artistry. The Long Afternoon of Earth is as enigmatic and heartfelt a statement you're likely to hear.

Artist:	MARTIN, AARON
Title:	Chautauqua
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 026CD

This is the third solo album from cellist and sound-sculptor Aaron Martin. Aaron not only surprised many with his 2007 debut Almond, but gained attention worldwide. The album set him on a course of many collaborations, and he has since worked with a diverse array of artists, including Machinefabriek, Dawn Smithson (Jessamine, Sunn O)))) and Jasper TX. His second album, River Water, proved a darkly compelling turn and stands as a forebear to Chautauqua in its pursuit of a distillation of pure emotional range, poised at the meeting point of intensity, calm and resolution. Now, Chautauqua puts Aaron's considerable talents and unique compositional vision at their most sharp and measured level yet. Concentrating on a core group of instruments -- cello, banjo and organ -- the pieces on Chautauqua are interwoven with field recordings as well as sounds from home movies, creating an edge tingling with a heightened, ghostly kind of nostalgia. Chautauqua is a poignant work, magnetic in its compulsion.

Artist:	BRODERICK, HEATHER WOODS
Title:	From The Ground
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 027CD

This is the debut full-length release from Oregon's Heather Woods Broderick. Growing up in the relative quiet of the Maine countryside while learning a range of instruments and being sung to sleep by her parents playing folk songs, natural and rural sounds became central to Heather's sense of song, falling into a deeply personal realm. The subtlety and nuance in Heather's music also comes from her inclination towards ambient and experimental sounds, conjuring atmosphere equally with the striking melodies at the core of her songs. It's also allowed for three gorgeous instrumentals to flow seamlessly alongside Heather's songs on this album. The songs on From The Ground hang then blossom, unfurling slowly to reveal disarming feelings through her spirited soul of a voice, gliding above the swirling beauty of her music. Rich and resonant, there's a veritable ensemble of instruments at play, including piano, guitar, celeste, flute, glockenspiel, mandolin and more. Lending his intuitive sensibility to From The Ground is Heather's brother Peter Broderick, who has already gained great notice in his short career for works of similar scope. Peter recorded and mixed the album in addition to playing throughout.

Artist:	SWIRE, BEN
Title:	From Here To There
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 028CD

This is the debut album from San Francisco's Ben Swire. While From Here To There can sit snugly in the canon of electronica, it's played out with expansive vision and immediate warmth. Woven together with a deft sense of minimalism and melody using double bass, interlocking guitars and crisp percussion, the use of live instrumentation against densely-layered field recordings finds great balance between elasticity and deep ambient underpinnings. The accomplished nature of this album is the result of a diverse background working in music composition and sound engineering. Ben is a multi-instrumentalist who lived in London for a spell, when he collaborated on a single on the Ninja Tune label offshoot NTone with Riz Maslen, aka Neotropic. He also studied electronic music with noted electroacoustic artist Charles Bestor, collaborated with experimentalists M. Bentley and Joel Stern, and has composed for film and new media. After writing, performing and improvising with various groups, Ben pushed his focus further with production techniques to sow the seeds for From Here To There, his process clearly keeping an eye firmly on beautifully-realized composition. Ben is also a photographer, his work having been shown in several U.S. galleries. His photos of desolate landscapes grace the artwork of the album to become a visual touchstone for the music's epic sweep and sense of affected space.

Artist:	OUS MAL
Title:	Nuojuva Halava
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 029CD

This is the debut album from Helsinki, Finland's Ous Mal. Ous Mal is the recording project of Olli Aarni. With previous CD-R releases for both Finland's 267-Lattajjaa and the UK's Under The Spire, Ous Mal has already gained notice for his expansive sound, further developed in widescreen on Nuojuva Halava. Finding common ground between the dusty tenor of old-school hip-hop cassettes and the fog of deep ambience as a base, the music of Ous Mal also takes on an ingrained influence of traditional Finnish folk for an epic, otherworldly take on sound and song. These atmospheric pieces can slowly swell into ecstasy or settle into hazy shades and spring into moments of joyful pop abandon. That line back to tradition -- with some pieces using the age-old Finnish stringed-instrument, kantele and others drawing from old Finnish hymnal albums -- makes for a lyrical imagery that evokes an elusive sense of place. It's a sound with the lingering presence of the past but with one eye set firmly on taking it into the future. Roughly translated, "nuojuva halava" means "swaying bay willow." The way things in nature change through time and surroundings is a recurring inspiration for Olli's music, heard especially in the way he often takes his textures towards compelling points of decay. UK artist Jenkins conceived the images for Nuojuva Halava's artwork, creating free-falling geometric shapes against backdrops of epic spaces to connect perfectly with the music packaged within. Nuojuva Halava creates a picture of great scope in its colliding of ideas into kindred spirits, arriving at a zone that's bold and blissful as it is personal. Mastered by renown Italian composer Giuseppe Ielasi (Pimmon, Heather Woods Broderick).

Artist:	HUTCHINGS, SOPHIE
Title:	Becalmed
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 030CD

The Preservation label presents the debut album from Sydney pianist Sophie Hutchings. Having begun playing piano young, growing up in a musical family, Sophie started writing properly in her teens -- indeed, the opening piece "Seventeen" is named for her age at the time it was originally composed, though all tracks on Becalmed have been developed and improvised on since their original form took shape. Sophie's compositions move from disarmingly spare and elegant beginnings to curl out with a tingling edge, propelling its austerity into urgent and epic realms. Violin, cello, drums, percussion and organ heighten the flight these pieces can take, as well as dip and swell within the more dimly-lit moods of gentler nuance, casting a particular spell across the range of feeling captured in Sophie's playing. Both unfussy and exquisite though constantly evolving, the inspired measure of Becalmed is found in the space it inhabits between the meditative and evocative. Becalmed was produced in two settings, with engineer Tim Whitten -- noted for his continuing work with The Necks -- and in Sydney and Tony Dupe, otherwise known as fellow Preservation artist Saddleback, in the tranquil surrounds of his former home studio in the Kangaroo Valley on the South Coast of New South Wales. Among other performers on the album, is Sophie's brother Jamie Hutchings, leader of longstanding Sydney outfit Bluebottle Kiss, and cellist Sophie Glasson, who has also recorded with Sarah Blasko and The Church. Seemingly from out of nowhere, though essentially poured out from deep within, Becalmed is a shimmering, absorbing debut.

Artist:	BLACK EAGLE CHILD
Title:	Lobelia
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 031CD

The Preservation label presents the debut full-length album from Milwaukee, Wisconsin's Black Eagle Child. Black Eagle Child is the guise for guitarist Michael Jantz. Jantz has previously released an expansive body of work, sprawling across some of the most notable underground labels of the current day, including Stunned, Housecraft and Digitalis. His solo recordings work a realm of exploratory zones for guitar that touch on the discordant, psychedelic and pastoral, while also deploying varied percussion and field recordings for texture and rhythm. That journey continues with Lobelia, though in its expansive scope, it's played for pure songcraft and resonant beauty. Lobelia can take a breezy pace but is deep with feeling throughout. Glistening pieces such as "Paper Delivery" unravel with an unashamedly wistful air, warmly redolent of the day's wake, while others such as "Goodbye House" cast starrier atmospheres and a more mysterious kind of grace in their way. It's the perfect combination for a work that reflects on Jantz's growing up in the rural idylls surrounding Lake Michigan. The album's title comes from the name of a native flower Jantz's mother would use as a cure-all remedy when he was younger. Coming full circle now, Jantz has recently seen the birth of his own, child, a daughter. It's her cooing on "I Forgot" that Jantz uses as another texture in weaving together a meditative portrait of family and the environs that can make it at once both unique and universal. Rounded off by the rustic banjo of "Families Get Together," these poignant, sometimes sepia-tinted pieces place a gentle eye on the future. Sweet and enigmatic, Lobelia finds a musical place befitting of such an ideal. It is as evocative as it is lovely. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. New Preservation standard packaging of slimline raw finish cardboard.

Artist:	SINGING SKIES, THE
Title:	Routine And War
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 032CD

The Preservation label presents the debut album from Sydney's The Singing Skies, the songwriting project for musician Kell Derrig-Hall. His first solo venture, Kell has previously contributed to records and live performances for the likes of Jack Ladder, Rand And Holland and Seaworthy. On Routine And War, Kell stands front and center with a presence built on old-school simplicity. Spare, disarming and open, these songs flower slowly with plaintive guitar at their core, often with a country lilt or a spellbinding, serpentine feel. Kell's stark and soulful voice is buoyed by the achingly beautiful harmonies of Lia Tsamoglu, who also provides warm, enveloping keyboard sounds throughout. Now otherwise known as pop artist Melodie Nelson, Lia is Kell's long-term partner and collaborator, the pair previously engaging in more experimental realms as Moonmilk. Also integral to Routine And War are its string arrangements -- both stirring and touching -- from Biddy Connor, (Laura Jean, Grand Salvo) lifting and weaving through lyrics that by turns prove haunting, piercing and gentle in spirit. Other guests include Laura Jean on piano and Laura Jean band percussionist Jen Sholakis. Routine And War was recorded by Simon Grounds in Melbourne, who also produced the seminal early works from Underground Lovers as well as albums by Grand Salvo and Laura Jean. In balancing subtlety with passion, Routine And War finds a rare poignancy. It is a delicate, intimate and most affecting debut. Mastered by renowned Italian composer Giuseppe Ielasi.

Artist:	NUOJUVA
Title:	Valot Kaukaa
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 033CD

The Preservation label presents Valot Kaukaa, the second album from Finnish producer Olli Aarni. Valot Kaukaa is the first work for Aarni under a new name, Nuojuva, having previously appeared under the name Ous Mal. As Ous Mal, Aarni's 2010 debut album, Nuojuva Halava took the early promise of his CD-R releases into a beautiful realization of a unique sound that evoked both a curious nostalgia and a sense of future pathways, combining classical overtures, narcotic beats and warm atmospherics into blissful song. Aarni's beguiling vision holds sparer focus on Valot Kaukaa (the title roughly translates as "lights from far away") for a more overtly ambient space filled with delicate instrumentation -- including cello, piano, flute and violin -- as well as a new interest in the possibilities of voice. Spacey and intimate with wintry and autumnal shades, its whispered melodies and open drift making for a heightened state still somehow grounded in down-home feeling. The gliding vocal textures of Rachel Evans aka Motion Sickness Of Time Travel as well as one-half of duo Quiet Evenings -- is a recurring highlight, while Sophie Hutchings' dazzling, rolling piano propels Laakso into a wonderful orbit. Honing a special path explored on Nuojuva Halava, Valot Kaukaa feels like one long, suspended, beautiful moment. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.

Artist:	HAINES, GREG
Title:	Digressions
Label:	PRESERVATION (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PRE 034CD

The Preservation label presents Digressions, the third album from British composer Greg Haines. Greg is a young composer with a small but impressive catalog and cache of appearances, including work alongside the likes of Gavin Bryars and Philip Glass on Glass' own imprint, Point Music. The genesis for Digressions began when Greg was commissioned to work with a school orchestra in Britain -- the aim to get its players thinking about different approaches to composition and sound. At the end of his time with the students, the piece they had worked on was recorded, which Greg then shaped further and added to until it eventually became Digressions. The orchestra became source material for Greg's own compositional essence of neo-classical colors and experimental contrasts. Like the work of Arvo P�rt, these pieces build and swell on graceful shapes of orchestral movements. In Greg's hands, they are rendered with nuance by processing and microtonal sounds that work like brushstrokes against their force, creating shifting harmonies, glimmers of melody and highly emotive listening. Invoking a curious beauty that also mirrors the expansive atmospheres of Christian Fennesz and the like, Digressions is sweeping and symphonic in its unfolding. Having lived in Berlin for many years now, Greg's work is also able to encompass performances from a range of talented and well-known friends also living in that city -- Digressions features composer and multi-instrumentalist Peter Broderick, as well as recording work from Dustin O'Halloran. The album was also mixed and mastered by native resident Nils Frahm. Such contributions help engender the grandeur of Greg's work as much as its subtlety. However, it's the poignancy and spirit Greg has invested into Digressions that stands as what makes it a truly captivating work.

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