Browse by Label: THE WORKER'S INSTITUTE

Artist:	AMINA
Title:	AnimaminA EP
Label:	THE WORKER'S INSTITUTE
Format:	CD
Price:	$6.50
Catalog #:	TWI 001CD

Beautifully played 4-track EP by this Icelandic quartet; debut release on this new LA-based label. "After playing on the last two Sigur Rós albums (Agaetis Byrjun and their untitled album), the Album Leaf record In a Safe Place and the Efterklang album Tripper, the women of Amina have created some beautiful and engaging music of their own. They have been playing together since 1998 when they met at the Reykjavik music college and quickly found themselves touring with Sigur Rós supporting Agaetis Byrjun. As they toured the world playing the only the songs from that album they all quickly needed new material. Amina joined the boys in nightly soundcheck improvisations, which led to collaborations on many songs. After recording a second album together and touring Amina, decided it was time to work on their own music. Known as a string quartet, this release finds them playing to their strengths on violin, viola and cello as well as many malleted instruments, a glassophone and various stringed instruments they picked up around the world."

Artist:	JOHANNSSON, JOHANN
Title:	Dís
Label:	THE WORKER'S INSTITUTE
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	TWI 002CD

"Like his previous album Englaborn (released on Touch in 2002), which was based on music originally written for the theater, Dís elaborates and expands on the musical themes used in the film. Unlike typical soundtrack recordings, however, Dís has the rare quality of being an impressive work that stands on its own. For the recording, Johann asked members of Reykjavik bands Funerals, Singapore Sling, Slowblow and Trabant to join him, as well as renowned Icelandic guitarist Hilmar Jennsson and one of Iceland's most beloved singers, Ragnheidur Grondal. This gives the album a loose and intricate feel, with the mood veering from joyous to sad, on the surface buoyant and playful, but revealing a strong melancholic undercurrent."

Artist:	BURR AND SKULI SVERRISSON, ANTHONY
Title:	A Thousand Incidents Arise
Label:	THE WORKER'S INSTITUTE
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	TWI 003CD

"Thousand Incidents Arise is the most recent, and most public documentation of the now ten year musical collaboration between Anthony Burr and Skuli Sverrisson. Independently, they have worked across a wide range of the contemporary musical landscape with Anthony as one of the world's foremost bass clarinetists, and Skuli as the Lower East Side's bass player du jour for the past 15 years. Separately, they have played with Laurie Anderson, Jim O'Rourke, Blonde Redhead, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alvin Lucier, David Sylvian, Johan Zorn, La Monte Young and many more. They began working together in New York in 1995 after Anthony had relocated from Melbourne, Australia, and Skuli from Reykjavik, Iceland. While the music both made professionally tended to emphasize instrumental virtuosity -- Skuli in jazz, Anthony in contemporary classical music -- their duo work tended to be resolutely minimal. Through the good graces of Icelandic mavericks Stillupsteypa they released a record of stark minimal electronics where the only sound source was electrical circuit feedback, on Fire Inc/Staalplaat in 1997, and played some live shows. A number of subsequent albums were recorded and abandoned as they moved deeper into computer music. Gradually, acoustic instruments and traces of all the music they had played over the years started to seep back in. Some of the concerns of the electronic investigations remain -- stasis, attention to minute timbral shifts -- but song form returns on two tracks, alongside harmonic strategies that seem to move in more conventional ways while fighting to remain where they began. This is a record that was recorded at home, with traffic outside, the coffee machine running, a tap dancer practicing across the courtyard, musicians walking in and out of the room. The pieces start before they really do, and finish past where they could. It is record of first takes recorded in a single day or over years. It is acoustic minimalism at it finest."

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