Browse by Artist: CONNORS, LOREN

Artist:	CONNORS, LOREN
Title:	Hell's Kitchen Park
Label:	ENABLING WORKS (NETHERLANDS)
Format:	LP
Price:	$23.50
Catalog #:	EW 001LP

180 gram vinyl special. Hell's Kitchen Park is the first of a selection of Loren Connors' typical and truly addictive guitar suites from the '90s to be reissued on vinyl. With his initial imprint release in 1993 on Black Label, Loren introduced his first thematic effort that later would prove to have shaped the identity of his work as it is today. Loren started using the electric guitar in the late '80s, which enabled him to experiment with more sustain and subtlety. This resulted in recording shorter, more structured pieces as opposed to his earlier acoustic solo work of long, on-going improvisation. He put down chord material on the four-track tape recorder, a sequence, and then overdubbed leads onto it. Pieces were built up in this way, and subsequently, suites of pieces. The first album recorded in this fashion was In Pittsburgh, followed by Blues: The "Dark Paintings" of Mark Rothko, Fallen Son, Midnight, concluded by and partially compiled on Rooms. All were self-released on the St. Joan label in very limited numbers, during a very productive period from 1989 to 1990. With the exception of the occasional tracks on which Suzanne Langille sang, most were merely numbered and named "Blues," still leaving Loren's work strongly signatured only in sound. In 1993, a picture of a poverty scene from around the turn of the 20th-century led Loren to come up with his first theme-based suite, continuing his solo home-recordings, now most distinctive in both sound and image. Hell's Kitchen Park radiates with inspiration. On this album, Loren introduces the contrast between tender, often anthem-like melodic lullabies, and haunting, thick distorted guitar crying, which causes great intensity. Suzanne Langille's occasional singing adds surprising diversity and warmth to the recording. It mingles so naturally that it sometimes is difficult to tell her voice from the guitar, as it seems to appear in tracks where it is not recorded. The tracks are strung together to build a composition as a whole, so it works as a composition itself rather than just a collection of pieces. The story the suite tells is of the poor circumstances the early 20th-century Irish-New York folk were living in, clustered in a neighborhood called Hell's Kitchen. The theme first saw light on a 7" EP called Mother & Son, which was released in 1993 by Road Cone, shortly before the Hell's Kitchen Park CD. The picture that inspired Loren to put the suite together is shown on the cover of the LP. Probably one of the best known, yet least-owned albums by Loren is now available again, on 180 gram quality vinyl with an insert.

Artist:	CONNORS, LOREN
Title:	Moonyean
Label:	ENABLING WORKS (NETHERLANDS)
Format:	LP
Price:	$23.50
Catalog #:	EW 002LP

180 gram vinyl special. This is the second of a selection of Loren Connors' typical and truly addictive guitar suites from the '90s to be reissued on vinyl. In 1994, after the Hell's Kitchen Park (EW 001LP) album and Mother & Son 7" EP had come out, a semi-sequel to the latter was released by Table of the Elements in the form of a 7" EP called The Five Points. The record told a short story of a New York City slum of that name, which counted the city's most mortalities in the year 1857, of which most were Irish children under six years of age. The EP featured one track that was given the ambiguous name "Moonyean." There was a movie from 1932 that was based on a theater play from 1919, in which the ghost of an Irish-American woman appeared in a garden. That ghost was Moonyean, and Loren named his next album after her. This suite of 13 individually untitled tracks was originally released on CD by Road Cone in 1994. For the re-release on 180 gram vinyl, the original artwork including Suzanne Langille's picture on the front cover has been upgraded, but the title is all that remains clear about the theme, still leaving its content up to one's imagination. Though ever-equipped with the same tools of his trade, Loren managed to come up with a different sound on every album. Moonyean for the most part is probably the most gentle of all, due to its source of inspiration. It carries a number of warm and fuzzy tracks in which notes just melt on the tongue. But the album also has the right dose of distorted experimental blues riffs, ever so intense. Loren may have found a new way to express himself through the different pick-up positions on his guitar as well as external effects, but his character guiding his soft artistic hands over the strings leaves the sound of one man and his guitar unequalled, as his state of mind decides the color of a recording. With the tape hiss, environmental sounds, acoustics, and Loren's occasional distant moaning, Moonyean is another beautiful piece of timeless and earthly sound art. For its completion, Suzanne Langille hums a few lines on one of the tracks, bringing in an element of peace -- perhaps playing the role of Moonyean. Even though it is not clear what Loren is saying exactly with the untitled tracks on the album, there is a certain pureness and truth in it.

Artist:	CONNORS, LOREN
Title:	The Departing of a Dream Vol. III: Juliet
Label:	FAMILY VINEYARD
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	FV 034CD

"'You can't hold on to things,' Loren Connors says. 'With great happiness comes great sorrow.' So brings us to the spectrum that is Departing of a Dream Vol. III: Juliet. Like the previous volumes, Juliet is a tribute of sorts; and here the focus is clearly love, the kind of love willing to face desolation and ultimately death. Recorded in Connors' Brooklyn apartment, his electric guitar emits a pulsing web of blues notes that settle against the utterly intimate human ambience of a creaking chair, tumbling objects, smoke curled absence and his signature canvas of tape hiss. The story of Juliet and her Romeo is told in a lyrical outpouring that Connors has rarely shown in recent years, a style associated which his Rooms (1990) and Evangeline (1999) albums. Though the 20-minute album opener contains a devastating core of mire and foreboding that only Connors can create."

Artist:	CONNORS, LOREN
Title:	As Roses Bow: Collected Airs 1992-2002
Label:	FAMILY VINEYARD
Format:	CD
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	FV 054CD

"As Roses Bow: Collected Airs 1992-2002 is a 2CD set of Loren Connors' most melodically rich and stunning miniature compositions. Inspired by O'Carolan's airs and other Irish airs of the past, these works, recorded from 1992-2002, are melded with Connors' distinctly personal adaptation of the blues. He considers these 43 pieces his complete airs. The collection is culled from 10 albums (eight of which are out-of-print ) and one single, including his groundbreaking Hell's Kitchen Park (Black Label, 1993), Moonyean (Road Cone, 1994), as well as obscure titles like St. Vincent's Newsboy Home (Item Recordings, 1998) and Lullaby (Carbon, 2001) plus four unreleased airs. Nearly the entire critically-heralded Airs (Road Cone, 1999) is remastered and included as well. A timeless collection of the most gorgeous and accessible work from one of America's most iconoclastic artists." Also includes pieces from the Five Points EP (Table of the Elements, 1994), 9th Avenue (Black Label, 1995). Calloden Harvest (Road Cone, 1997), Evangeline (Road Cone, 1998), Standing Upright on a Curve (Sub Rosa, 1998) and Sails (Table of the Elements, 2006). Remastered by Jim O'Rourke."

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