Browse by Artist: BLOOM & LOREN CONNORS, KATH

Artist:	BLOOM & LOREN CONNORS, KATH
Title:	Sing The Children Over/Sand In My Shoe
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	CH 063CD

Originally released by Chapter Music in 2008, this is the first of two double disc reissues by extraordinary early-'80s folk duo Kath Bloom and Loren Connors. Meeting in 1976 in their hometown of New Haven, CT, Bloom and Connors formed a creative partnership that has haunted psych-folk fans ever since, releasing six albums of fragile, avant-garde folk-blues in miniscule quantities, all of which now change hands for huge sums. At first, Kath would act out monologues while Loren played his free-form guitar, extrapolated from Mississippi Delta and Chicago blues. But while Loren worked on his now-legendary nine-volume series Unaccompanied Acoustic Guitar Improvisations, he and Kath's performances gradually became more song-based. Kath began practicing guitar among the headstones of New Haven's Grove Street cemetery, while Loren's idiosyncratic style had been developing since the 1960s. By the early '80s, after self-releasing two limited-edition live albums, the duo were playing occasionally outside of New Haven, and soon Boston independent label Ambiguous Records approached them to record their first studio effort. Acclaimed jazz critic and music historian Nat Hentoff wrote sensitive, insightful liner notes and Sing The Children Over emerged in 1982 and Sand In My Shoe in 1983. The albums mixed traditional folk and blues songs with Kath's originals, revealing Kath to be an accomplished and moving songwriter. It also set up the dynamic template that she and Loren would follow over their remaining recordings -- Kath's fragile voice and subdued finger-picked guitar set against Loren's playing: abstract, skittering, sometimes atonal but always intuitively supportive. Together the duo created a sound almost impossibly emotional and haunting, one unlike anything created before or since. By 1984, however, Kath was married with a young son, and Connors himself was entering a new relationship, so the duo found themselves drifting apart. And now, after almost 25 years, these original recordings are again available to be soaked up, marveled at and relished. Completely remastered, and containing extensive liner notes, original photos and artwork, and a treasure trove of bonus tracks.

Artist:	BLOOM & LOREN CONNORS, KATH
Title:	Restless Faithful Desperate/Moonlight
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	CH 065CD

Restless Faithful Desperate/Moonlight is the second of Chapter Music's double disc reissues by extraordinary early-'80s folk duo Kath Bloom and Loren Connors. Meeting in 1976 in their hometown of New Haven, CT, Kath Bloom and Loren Connors formed a creative partnership that has haunted psych-folk fans ever since, releasing six albums of fragile, avant-garde folk-blues in miniscule quantities, all of which now change hands for huge sums. At first, Kath would act out monologues while Loren played his free-form guitar, extrapolated from Mississippi Delta and Chicago blues, but gradually he and Kath's performances became more song-based. Kath began practicing guitar among the headstones of New Haven's Grove Street cemetery, while Loren's idiosyncratic style had been developing since the 1960s. After self-releasing two limited edition live albums, the duo recorded Sing The Children Over for tiny Boston label Ambiguous Records in 1982, and then in 1983, self-released fourth album Sand In My Shoe. Early on, their albums mixed traditional folk and blues songs with a handful of Kath's vulnerable, moving originals. But by the later albums, the songs were all Kath's -- her fragile voice and subdued finger-picked guitar set against Loren's abstract playing: skittering, sometimes atonal but always intuitively supportive. Together the duo created a sound almost impossibly emotional and haunting, unlike anything created before or since. Their last two albums Restless Faithful Desperate and Moonlight both emerged in 1984, in editions of 200-300 copies on Loren's St. Joan label. As her creativity accelerated, so Kath's songs became looser, more intuitive, with a darkening of tone and an eventual abandonment of intent to shape the music. The songs were still there, however -- Restless... contains one of her most gorgeous compositions, "Look At Me," while Moonlight includes an early version of Kath's signature tune "Come Here." After a quarter of a century, Kath Bloom and Loren Connors' incredible recordings are finally available again. The reissue includes extensive liner notes, original photos and artwork, and six bonus tracks taken from a rare 1982 compilation and an unreleased 1984 live session.

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