Browse by Label: IMMUNE

Artist:	DEATH VESSEL
Title:	Stay Close
Label:	IMMUNE
Format:	LP
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	IMMUNE 001LP

"Death Vessel is Joel Thibodeau's work as both a solo artist and band leader. His music, captured on the resplendent record Stay Close, is an eloquent distillation of a life's tales. Born in Berlin, Germany before The Wall fell... raised in Kennebunkport, Maine before senior Bush's presidency... this musician lived a childhood where the ghosts of Cold War casualties and seaport tragedies haunted the alleyways and beaches. Leaving Maine as a teenager, Thibodeau moved to Boston, Providence and New York. In Providence he was a founding member, songwriter and performer of the group String Builder. Now as then, Thibodeau captures the surreal and the sublime in wondrous song. Thibodeau's vocal delivery is astonishing. Perhaps his singing is best-described as descendent from 'the high lonesome sound' -- unleashed upon the world by Roscoe Holcomb in the early 1960s. With this voice, Death Vessel delivers stunning lyrical poetry that transcends the 'whisky 'n' haystack' imagery of its neo-folk contemporaries. Thibodeau brings this same unusual experimentation to the acoustic guitar (his primary instrument). The daringly melodic plucking of strings and the odd tempo changes provide expertly unexpected accompaniment. Stay Close was originally released on CD in 2005 by North East Indie. New Chicago imprint Immune is proud to present the album on the LP format for the first time. This version of the album contains a bonus track exclusive to this release -- a live/acoustic version of 'Deep In The Horchata,' recorded in 2005 with Micah Blue Smaldone playing accompaniment."

Artist:	SMALDONE, MICAH BLUE
Title:	The Red River
Label:	IMMUNE
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMMUNE 002CD

"The Red River is the fourth solo offering from Portland, Maine's Micah Blue Smaldone and the first to be released on Chicago label Immune. Here's what Micah has to say about it: 'Rather than construct a thick frame of reference for this new album, I'd prefer to describe simply where I've come from in the past few years, and then let this music speak for itself. My first solo effort, 2003's Some Sweet Day, was a collection of ragtime and country-blues, a fervently authentic homage to great influences -- John Jackson, Blind Blake, Robert Wilkins, etc., who all helped me through some tough times. 2005's Hither and Thither was much more internal, an urgent telling of germination in a harsh climate. This new one reaches a little further both into the past and the future. The title is borrowed from 'Red River Blues,' an old chestnut that goes 'which way, which way do that blood red river run? From my back window home to the rising sun.' I suppose this is the big theme of the album - 'Never fight evil as if it were something that arose totally outside of yourself.' It is simple faith in the goodness of people, the depth of love, and the infinite wisdom of nature, which allows for this path to be cut with patience, humility, and an eagerness to share. So let this album be a little way-mark, and never a hitching post.'"

Artist:	TAPE
Title:	Luminarium
Label:	IMMUNE
Format:	LP
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMMUNE 004LP

"Swedish trio Tape was set up in 2000 by brothers Andreas and Johan Berthling with Tomas Hallonsten. Taking cues both from pop, experimentalism and minimalism their sound has become recognized internationally and is clearly something of its own. Their first album, Opera, was released on the Häpna imprint (which Johan is a co-owner of) in 2002. Working intuitive, all by themselves, they created mini symphonies out of electronic sounds paired with a stunning melodic lyricism. With an array of electronic and acoustic instruments at hand they recorded at a small stone barn on the island of Öland, east of Sweden. 2003 saw the release of Milieu, recorded at the very same barn. These recordings had a more arranged feeling and a clear pop sensibility in some parts. In 2005 they went to Cologne to have Marcus Schmickler produce and record their third album Rideau. This was done in his Piethopraxis studio in Cologne and his involvement left traces; an almost architectonical approach was taken and some of the intimacy that characterized the first two albums were replaced by a harder edge. Luminarium is Tape's fourth album and it was recorded in their Summa studio in Stockholm. The album was released on CD by Häpna in 2008. Immune is proud to release the album on vinyl for the first time."

Artist:	SMITH, STEVEN R.
Title:	Cities
Label:	IMMUNE
Format:	LP
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMMUNE 005LP

"American multi-instrumentalist Steven R. Smith has been releasing a steady stream of solo records for well over a decade as well as playing in various improvisational groups including Thuja, Hala Strana, and most recently Ulaan Khol. This music has ranged from sparse solo guitar improvisations to Hala Strana's reworkings of Eastern European traditional folk tunes to the dense, psychedelic fuzz guitar workouts of Ulaan Khol. On his latest full-length solo release, Cities, Smith combines the composed with the improvisational and the result is a beautiful and desolate collection of songs evoking a crumbling landscape reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road or the films of Hungarian director Béla Tarr. Cities was recorded in Smith's Worstward Studios on all analog equipment and features a wide variety of instrumentation including fretted spike fiddle, baritone psaltery, electric and nylon stringed guitars, cello, melodica, electric piano and organ. Musically, Smith's work over the years could be summed up as a struggle to contain a series of opposites: light and darkness, sorrow and joy, despair and hope. It is this balance, or at least the effort to create or maintain this balance, that informs Cities as well. Smith has recorded for numerous labels including Important Records, Catsup Plate, Soft Abuse, Emperor Jones, Last Visible Dog, Jewelled Antler, Digitalis and Darla. Cities is his first release for Immune Recordings."

Artist:	AHMED, ILYAS
Title:	Between Two Skies/Towards The Night
Label:	IMMUNE
Format:	2LP
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	IMMUNE 006LP

"Pakistani-born musician Ilyas Ahmed traffics a sound that borders on the folk/drone/raga/rock axis, one that Scottish critic David Keenan has called 'gone'. Currently residing in Portland, OR, Ahmed has released recordings on Time-Lag, Digitalis, and Root Strata. Immune Recordings is now proud to present the ultimate edition of these two modern classics presented as a deluxe gatefold double LP. Featuring the original collage artwork printed in full color as well as brand new gatefold artwork created especially for this release by Ilyas Ahmed. The music was meticulously cut to vinyl by Roger Seibel at SAE Mastering in Phoenix, AZ and pressed on high quality virgin vinyl at RTI in Camarillo, CA."

Artist:	JOYNES, C
Title:	Revenants, Prodigies And The Restless Dead
Label:	IMMUNE
Format:	LP
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	IMMUNE 007LP

"Immune is proud to present a deluxe and limited edition vinyl version of the brand new album from British guitarist C Joynes. This is the second widely available album from Joynes (after last year's God Feeds The Ravens) and is being released simultaneously on CD by Bo' Weavil Recordings. C Joynes is a musician whose playing has consistently invoked a broad and shifting stream of inspirations. As a guitarist, there is no doubt that Joynes has been influenced by some of the most idiosyncratic finger-pickers of the last 40 years and beyond, but his music goes far beyond simply this. His recordings have always offered many dimensions for the listener to explore, be it through solo acoustic pieces, larger ensemble work, or the intimate use of improvisations and hill recordings. Building on previous albums, Revenants, Prodigies & The Restless Dead is a more expansive affair. Joined on a number of these tunes by an assortment of friends and collaborators, a range of acoustic and vintage electronic instruments all make appearances, gradually fleshing out some of the ideas and direction that Joynes clearly has imprinted in his mind's eye, adding color and hue to some of these beautiful compositions. While Joynes remains at home with English and American forms of folk music, the twelve pieces on this album continue to demonstrate the extent to which other traditions, both eastern and western, have an equal and instinctive pull on his music. Listen to the detuned and prepared guitar of 'Nyambai Sawmill,' which seems equally drawn out of late '60s classical experimentalism as it does to sounds from the Western Sahara." Limited, numbered edition of 500 copies.

Artist:	TAPE & BILL WELLS
Title:	Fugue
Label:	IMMUNE
Format:	LP
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	IMMUNE 008LP

"A brand new mini-album from Tape & Bill Wells. Tape and Bill Wells first met in Stockholm while Bill was performing his music with The Concretes and Jens Lekman. Both artists were aware of each other's work and upon this first meeting they spoke of collaborating together on a recording. A year later Bill invited Tape to perform three concerts together at Triptych Festival in Scotland. During their visit a day was spent recording at Ca Va Sound in Glasgow. Those recordings were the start of something truly special. In 2008, Bill traveled to Stockholm to again perform some concerts with Tape and it was during this visit that a week was spent recording at Tape's own Summa Studio. It was the recordings from this session that became Fugue. The four tracks selected were the ones where the music sounded like something completely of its own, something other than Bill Wells or Tape. With the use of piano, organ, Fender Rhodes, guitar, bass, electronics, drums and synthesizer Fugue is truly a unique and timeless recording from these legendary and prolific artists. Simplistic, searching and fragile."

Artist:	SCOTT, SIMON
Title:	Traba
Label:	IMMUNE
Format:	LP
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	IMMUNE 009LP

"Traba is a brand new mini-LP from the UK's Simon Scott. 2009 saw the release of Scott's debut solo album Navigare released on Miasmah Recordings (run by Erik Skodvin of Svarte Greiner/Deaf Center). Traba contains four tracks that were written at the end of the sessions for Navigare. When the deadline for completion of the album came and went these compositions were unfinished, but over the course of the summer and autumn of 2009 they were completed in Scott's o3o3o Studio in Cambridge. Traba continues and expands on the themes of submergence, being lost at sea, and intoxication. Opening track 'She Came From The Sea', with its distant swirling brush stroke drumming, haunting vocals and deep processed textures, captures the almost overwhelming physicality of being at sea, miles from home, yearning for loved ones and a physical embrace. Though this is the first track on the record it was the last one to be written and completed after the Navigare sessions. 'The Water Loop' tackles themes of addiction, obsession and urban decay via a Max/MSP manipulated loop that initially feels warmly narcoleptic but grows into something anxious and intimidating. The music evokes warmth and adventure but slowly unfolds into a dark tone of emotional weakness and paranoia. An influence of Stanley Kubrick shines out here as this is a musical landscape occupied by Droogs on Molotov cocktails threatening to impose themselves on you."

Artist:	IRISARRI, RAFAEL ANTON
Title:	Reverie
Label:	IMMUNE
Format:	LP
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	IMMUNE 010LP

Repressed. "Immune is proud to announce the release of Reverie, a brand new mini-LP release from Seattle-based Rafael Anton Irisarri. These are the first new recordings from Irisarri since the Hopes And Past Desires 7" EP released in early 2009. Reverie features two brand new compositions, 'Lit A Dawn' and 'Embraced' on Side A and an amazing side-long interpretation of the Arvo Pärt classic 'Für Alina' on Side B. Irisarri has long been a student and listener of Arvo Pärt's approach to composition and has always been profoundly inspired by Part's tintinnabuli style. While working on a special 'Day of the Dead' performance in 2009 for the Seattle Art Museum, Irisarri decided to perform some Arvo Pärt pieces with pianist Kelly Wise. While Wise performed 'Fur Alina' on piano, Irisarri took some liberties with the piece and added new arrangements for drone guitar and electronics. The performance inspired Irisarri to return to his home studio and create new compositions to accompany the 'Für Alina' piece. Reverie features piano, drone, electronics, and bowed/treated guitar. Irisarri began experimenting with guitar bowing techniques on the Hopes And Past Desires release and continues the approach here." On clear vinyl.

Artist:	EXPO '70
Title:	Where Does Your Mind Go?
Label:	IMMUNE
Format:	2LP
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	IMMUNE 011LP

"Where Does Your Mind Go? is the brand new studio album from Expo 70 recorded during one prolific evening in 2009 while on an East Coast tour. The recording was tackled by Jason Meagher (No Neck Blues Band, D. Charles Speer & the Helix) at his Black Dirt Studios in upstate New York. On the recording, Expo 70 founder Justin Wright is joined by part-time player Matt Hill (Umberto) and the two truly capture time and stand it still. Where Does Your Mind Go? is a 74-minute journey released on deluxe double LP and comprised of four long-form tracks that each take up a side of the two LPs. The drum rhythm of the album's opening track 'Close Your Eyes and Effortlessly Drift Away' will surely put the listener in a relaxed trance. Delicately strummed notes from guitar and synth slowly surface and come to the forefront, building as the guitar melodies shift and flow alongside majestic ambience that is eventually joined by a moody bass line. Side B's 'Night Dusting the Atmosphere' is a more electronically-driven piece that conjures the best of mid-'70s Klaus Schulze with darker moods that sound more like a '70s horror film than a loose drift into space. The second record shifts as 'Transgressing Outward Which Is Inward' opens with a pounding synth loop and is accompanied three minutes later by piano. Clocking in at nineteen minutes, this track's brooding synth melodies and fluttering piano notes build into a John Cage-like choral resonance. It's not hard to lose time while listening as the moods of each instrument delicately transform and intertwine." Deluxe full-color gatefold sleeve.

Artist:	TUMA, SCOTT
Title:	Not For Nobody
Label:	IMMUNE
Format:	LP
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	IMMUNE 013LP

"Not For Nobody is the third solo album from Chicago's Scott Tuma. Originally released on CD in 2008 by the Digitalis label, Immune is happy to present a first time vinyl edition of this essential work featuring new artwork by Chris Koelle. Not For Nobody was greeted with critical acclaim upon it's release in 2008 and was the much needed follow up to Tuma's solo albums Hard Again (2001, Truckstop) and The River 1 2 3 4 (2003, Truckstop). Since the release of Not For Nobody, Tuma has released the collaborative album Taradiddle (2009, Digitalis) with Mike Weis (Zelienople) and his fourth solo album Dandelion (2010, Digitalis). Tuma is a luminary of the Chicago musical environment from his days as guitarist in pioneering Chicago alt-country band Souled American to his work in the Boxhead Ensemble and Good Stuff House (with Matt Christensen and Mike Weis of Zelienople)."

Artist:	CLEARED
Title:	Cleared
Label:	IMMUNE
Format:	LP
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	IMMUNE 014LP

"Cleared is the Chicago duo of Steven Hess and Michael Vallera. Cleared was formed in the latter part of 2009 as a project meant to focus on repetition and patience as central elements of composition. Hess and Vallera have previously worked in various contexts of improvisational, long form and experimental music. Cleared is an effort to take the knowledge both have gained from these arenas in order to build hypnotic patterns of sound and rhythm. The sessions that created the material for the initial tracks were made in Steven Hess's Chicago studio in an extremely straightforward manner of recording. Percussion, electronics, field recordings and other experiments were arranged and supplemented with synthesis and guitar. Frequently, parts of the original audio recordings were sampled and further manipulated back into the work. The result is a body of songs that are simultaneously familiar and indistinguishable in their instrumentation." On white vinyl; includes postcard.

Artist:	TAPE
Title:	Revelationes
Label:	IMMUNE
Format:	LP
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	IMMUNE 015LP

"Revelationes is the 5th studio album from Tape, their first since 2008's Luminarium and the follow-up to their collaboration LP with Bill Wells (Fugue, Immune 008, 2010). The LP is co-released with Häpna in an edition of 1,000 copies worldwide and pressed on high-quality virgin vinyl at RTI with free MP3 download coupon. (CD version also available on Häpna). Tape have been playing their unique blend of pop, experimentalism, and minimalism since 2000; having released four full-length albums and collaborative recordings with Tenniscoats, Bill Wells, and Minamo."

Artist:	SOUSA, TIAGO
Title:	Walden Pond's Monk
Label:	IMMUNE
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMMUNE 016CD

"Walden Pond's Monk is the brand new album from Portuguese musician and composer Tiago Sousa. Walden Pond's Monk is a piece that was composed and heavily influenced by the idealism and revolutionary spirit of Henry David Thoreau. The album is a natural evolution of the aesthetics already present in the previous album Insónia, while at the same time it reveals the maturity of a composer who consistently challenges himself. On this album, Tiago Sousa maintains the same intuitive and spontaneous approach to the piano and remains convincingly impermeable to the normative formalisms of genre and academism. With Ricardo Ribeiro (clarinet) and Baltazar Molina (percussion), Sousa builds a piece in a continuous momentum, anchored on impressionist melodies of disarming simplicity and interrupted by a stormy improvisation. During the thirty two minutes of Walden Pond's Monk, Tiago Sousa nourishes a romantic narrative based upon the essential ideas that Thoreau documented in works like Walden or Civil Disobedience: the profound respect for freedom and for the infinite expression of the possibilities of men."

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