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LP
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FM 016LP
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New York Downtown producer/composer Peter Gordon returns with Eighteen, his first album in three years. Gordon on Eighteen: "Eighteen: the year of release, 2018. Eighteen: the age at which I first used a synthesizer. In creating Eighteen I worked independently in the studio, building up tracks with synthesizers and found sounds. After working with the tracks for several months, I shared them with some musicians, who added instrumental layers, sharing a similar working process in our personal recording spaces. The musicians are: Gabe Gurnsey (drums) of Factory Floor, Larry Saltzman, (guitar) known for his work with Arthur Russell and in demand by acts such as Simon and Garfunkel, Paul Nowinski's (bass) credits include Les Paul, Matt Mottel, (electric piano), is half of Talibam!, while Lewin Barringer (guitar), is a producer in Philadelphia. After mixing the final tracks, I brought the mixes to Berlin. There I worked with engineer Mike Grinser who helped to give the album a unified sound. I think of this album as electronic music. It was created in my home studio, using analog and digital synthesizers, found sounds, and instrumental parts contributed by friends. Finely crafted melodies and harmonies are set against subway noises, street construction, and distant foghorns. Deliberateness paired with randomness: this is what guided the artistic process. My father was a radio journalist so the reel-to-reel tape recorder was a ubiquitous presence growing up. From an early age, I experimented with the tape machine: recording, overdubbing and splicing tape, but electronic music was on my radar as well. My first exposure to an actual synthesizer came when I recorded my first single at the fabled Sound City Studio in Van Nuys, CA. The studio had a custom Neve board, but it also had a Moog modular synthesizer. I asked and they kindly let me experiment with it. Soon, I enrolled at the University of California, San Diego after I discovered they had separate studios for their Moog and Buchla systems. These large modular synthesizers were affordable then only by institutions and rock stars. But these would be soon eclipsed by smaller, cheaper synths in the '70s and early '80s in the same way recording studio technology became accessible in the '90s. Thus, the personal computer and digital audio allowed studio quality production in the home studio; electronic music had become democratized. Handmade music by way of digital technology; this is the music of Eighteen."
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CD
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FOOM 004CD
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Many of Peter Gordon's old friends and collaborators, such as the late Arthur Russell, have been extensively documented through reissues, books, and films, but Gordon himself remains a bit of an enigma. In 2007, his music received a high-profile push from James Murphy, who prominently featured Gordon and Love of Life Orchestra in his FabricLive.36 mix (FABRIC 072CD). In 2010, Murphy's label DFA released a revelatory collection of Gordon's music from the '70s and '80s, which included two little-heard tracks recorded with Russell, and shed light on Gordon's long career. Gordon performed his first symphony, Symphony in Four Movements, at The Kitchen in New York in 1976, with a band that included Russell, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and Rhys Chatham, and formalized his Love of Life Orchestra in April 1977, initially a 12-musician group. Gordon's exploration of disco, electronic, pop, and jazz elements blended with experimental music has since included collaborations with Factory Floor (OM 019EP), Archangel (FOOM 002CD/LP), and Tim Burgess, as well as a role as music producer on Robert Ashley's opera Vidas Perfectas. Gordon now presents Symphony 5, recorded in front of a live audience by Grammy-winning producer Jeff Jones "The Jedi Master" on June 5, 2013, in the acoustically marvelous Roulette concert hall in Brooklyn. The performance is tight but loose: there's plenty of room for the unexpected as Gordon the composer allows Gordon the conductor to make decisions on the fly. Throughout the work's five movements (one of which, "Juvenalia," is an homage to "Project Chick" by Lil Wayne's and Mannie Fresh's hip-hop super group Cash Money Millionaires), Gordon's instrumental writing keeps moving, leading the listener through careening textures of counterpoint and groove, to say nothing of pleasure and pain; beneath all its exuberance and dry humor flows a dark undercurrent. The performance includes long-time LoLO members Peter Zummo (trombone), Randy Gun (guitar), Ned Sublette (guitar), and Bill Ruyle (mallet percussion). Also featured in the ensemble are Cuban jazz luminaries Elio Villafranca (piano) and Yunior Terry (bass), renowned Latin jazz musician Robby Ameen (drums), New York veteran Paul Shapiro (saxophones), Katie Porter (clarinets), and second-generation LoLO member Max Gordon (trumpet). Peter Gordon conducted the performance while playing combo organ and synth. Symphony 5 is the first release in Foom's extensive series devoted to Gordon. The series will concentrate on new recordings, unearthed material from his personal archive, as well as a few select reissues from his discography.
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LP
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FOOM 004LP
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LP version. Includes a download code for sound files and video extras.
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