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BNSD 063LP
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Valo Siroutuu (The Light Scatters) is a collaborative song cycle written on and for the island of Kimitoön, home to Finnish artist Lau Nau. Incorporating in-situ field recordings, impromptu outdoor songwriting, contemplative and patient chamber arrangements, and lyrics delivered both in Finnish and English, the album thematically pursues observations of and meditations on place, time, nature, home, play, and language. Less a record of songs and more a continued, braided rope of ephemeral moments and turbid musical events, this work exists in a suspended dream or flow state, billowing up momentarily like wind breezing through spruce leaves or cresting over like the initial breaking waves of an oncoming high tide, yet always eventually rippling out back into quietude and solace like the patient floating fractures of light scattered across water's surface. RIYL: Juliana Barwick, Volcano Choir, Grouper, Amiina, The Album Leaf, Microphones, Múm, El Perro Del Mar, Sigur Ros, Kemialliset Ystävät. "A travelogue of sound" --Drifting, Almost Falling
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LP + 7"
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BNSD 062LP
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LP version. Includes 7'. In early 2019, Dominic Appleton met up for lunch in London with 4AD founder Ivo Watts-Russell while the long-retired label boss was visiting from his home in New Mexico. At the time of their lunch Appleton had already agreed to work on an album with Italian composer and producer Matteo Uggeri but was suffering from a minor crisis of confidence. Thanks to Uggeri's persistence and Ivo-Watts' timely encouragement, Starlight And Still Air exists, their stunning, memorable, and downright addictive debut album as Starlight Assembly. Drawing on a foundation of song-oriented electronic music while hewing to no single genre, Starlight And Still Air conjures up a sound palette that is both redolent and familiar yet very much its own. It is accessible, yes, but its layered complexity, evocative lyrics, and deft use of field recordings will likewise keep listeners returning for more. After the skittering drums and detached rhythms that introduce opening track "Afternoon Update", the album settles into itself, unfurling a run of songs that could each be a standalone single yet also work perfectly together as a fully-realized song cycle. Askew yet deeply grounded and personal, featuring beats that lock in over a bed of dubby low end, songs like "Cold Sun", "There Is No Crisis To Come" and "Look What We've Wasted" have a propulsive, move-your-body intensity that demand attention. "Still Air" sounds like a lost gem from the edges of trip-hop. "Looking For Clues", with its siren strings and relatable frustration, is taut and wiry. "The Long Goodbye" and "Bloodlines" move at a slower pace with their respective nods to partnership, mortality, and the familial. All ten tracks are centered around the melancholic, ambiguous lyrics of Dominic Appleton and his sonorous, instantly-recognizable voice. Starlight And Still Air begs for a long drive across troubled yet soothing landscapes; it treads the line between pop-forward and something more idiosyncratic and resistant to being captured. Most of Starlight And Still Air was meticulously constructed by Uggeri, who built each track from a vast range of sounds from his network of collaborators, in most cases tapping into folders of recordings given to him by these friends: drums, cellos, trumpet, violins, bass, guitar, plus quite a lot of beats, electronics and field recordings created solely by himself. The fine tuning seemed nearly done after a few other final adjustments, including a new closing track built from a piano improvisation by Francesco Giannico.
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BNSD 061LP
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After making a name for himself over the last decade in Beirut's vibrant contemporary music scene, Anthony Sahyoun unveils his solo debut, the evocative and atmospheric Proof By Infinite Descent. Using guitar, synthesizer, and voice, Sahyoun tackles themes of mourning, accidental prophecy, and the new holy trinity of God, capitalism, and technology -- all while mining the seams of experimental electronica and gravity-defying ambient music. Restless, haunting, at times breathtakingly beautiful, this is an album that seeks to rattle cages rather than soothe the comfortable. Proof By Infinite Descent is the first installment in the Corrosion Series, a new project by longtime collaborators Ruptured and Beacon Sound that aims to showcase Beirut's blast-resistant music scene while building cultural connective tissue in a time of institutional corrosion. RIYL: Tim Hecker, Ben Frost, Anna Meredith, Fennesz, Blanck Mass, Eartheater, Holly Herndon, Liturgy. Clear vinyl; edition of 300.
Sahyoun on Proof By Infinite Descent: "This album is a response to contemporary Lebanon -- and, by extension, our fractured world -- and is inspired by the complex web of institutions (religion, family, capitalism, etc.) that work together to preserve the status quo despite looming catastrophe. Grief, futility, and perpetual chaos mix and reconstitute themselves in these songs, each of which contains a story within. 'Irhamna', for example, was written as a prayer to Mar Roukoz, the patron saint of plagues and epidemics. It's a piece that I produced in late 2019, thinking that it was a reference to the plague that is our government, completely unaware that in just a few months the world would be dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. 'Jesuit Literature...' was written in an attempt to make boat sounds with my bows, reimagining the Levant without its history of colonization by external forces, specifically the Jesuits beginning in the 1600s and by the French after the defeat of the Ottomans. 'Khifat Al-Atraf' (loosely translating to 'mourning' in English), the piece featuring Firas al-Hallek, is a poem for his mother, who passed away when he was 14; Wasted Efforts, featuring the voice of Julia Sabra, is likewise dedicated to my own mother (still very much alive, thankfully). Requiem is an offering to those who lost their lives in the Beirut port explosion of Aug 4, 2020. Proof By Infinite Descent might represent my own futile expedition towards making sense of the present but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless, finding beauty in the cracks, which grow larger by the day."
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BNSD 062CD
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In early 2019, Dominic Appleton met up for lunch in London with 4AD founder Ivo Watts-Russell while the long-retired label boss was visiting from his home in New Mexico. At the time of their lunch Appleton had already agreed to work on an album with Italian composer and producer Matteo Uggeri but was suffering from a minor crisis of confidence. Thanks to Uggeri's persistence and Ivo-Watts' timely encouragement, Starlight And Still Air exists, their stunning, memorable, and downright addictive debut album as Starlight Assembly. Drawing on a foundation of song-oriented electronic music while hewing to no single genre, Starlight And Still Air conjures up a sound palette that is both redolent and familiar yet very much its own. It is accessible, yes, but its layered complexity, evocative lyrics, and deft use of field recordings will likewise keep listeners returning for more. After the skittering drums and detached rhythms that introduce opening track "Afternoon Update", the album settles into itself, unfurling a run of songs that could each be a standalone single yet also work perfectly together as a fully-realized song cycle. Askew yet deeply grounded and personal, featuring beats that lock in over a bed of dubby low end, songs like "Cold Sun", "There Is No Crisis To Come" and "Look What We've Wasted" have a propulsive, move-your-body intensity that demand attention. "Still Air" sounds like a lost gem from the edges of trip-hop. "Looking For Clues", with its siren strings and relatable frustration, is taut and wiry. "The Long Goodbye" and "Bloodlines" move at a slower pace with their respective nods to partnership, mortality, and the familial. All ten tracks are centered around the melancholic, ambiguous lyrics of Dominic Appleton and his sonorous, instantly-recognizable voice. Starlight And Still Air begs for a long drive across troubled yet soothing landscapes; it treads the line between pop-forward and something more idiosyncratic and resistant to being captured. Most of Starlight And Still Air was meticulously constructed by Uggeri, who built each track from a vast range of sounds from his network of collaborators, in most cases tapping into folders of recordings given to him by these friends: drums, cellos, trumpet, violins, bass, guitar, plus quite a lot of beats, electronics and field recordings created solely by himself. The fine tuning seemed nearly done after a few other final adjustments, including a new closing track built from a piano improvisation by Francesco Giannico.
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BNSD 059LP
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Sage Fisher returns with Body Of Water, recorded last year against the backdrop of the emerging Covid-19 pandemic with Grammy-nominated producer Tucker Martine. Body Of Water represents both a deepening and an expansion of her singular sound. Although the harp retains its pivotal role as Fisher's instrument of choice, the album features a stronger emphasis on her voice, delivered in a series of arresting incantations that take flight over a bed of ground-shifting beats and percussion. Mining the rich seams of experimental pop music, Fisher projects warmth and vulnerability alongside a newfound clarity and confidence, bringing themes of betrayal, transformation, and self-renewal into her songwriting process in a true symbiosis of life and art. Few artists can tackle such complex subject matter, yet leave you exhaling in wonder midway through the album as "Break" ("I'm making preparations for the apocalypse/everything I touch, I break") unfolds out of its percussive frisson into an utterly gorgeous and transportive ambient soundscape. Body Of Water lives and breathes at the intersection of contemporary pop and the intertwined worlds of electronic, ambient, and neoclassical music -- witness an artist metamorphosize in real-time, and with the deft hand of one of the world's most renowned producers by her side. Indeed, as Fisher writes, Body Of Water "moves in and out of the physical, fluttering between worlds, just as I was." Music composed and performed in Portland by Sage Fisher. Produced by Tucker Martine. Recorded and mixed by Tucker Martine at Flora Recording and Playback. Assistant engineer: Cole Halvorsen. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio. RIYL: Holly Herndon, Björk, Colleen, Mary Lattimore, Fever Ray, Zeena Parkins, Kate Bush, FKA Twigs.
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BNSD 058LP
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"Led by composer Rishin Singh, this sublime ensemble fits neatly into the complex of Berlin musicians devoted to alternate tunings. Blending exquisite, enveloping long tones, the measured singing of Annie Gårlid and Stine Sterne, and stately, slowly unfolding melodies, Leider is an art-song combo that finds the commonalities in John Dowland, the Velvet Underground, and La Monte Young." --Peter Margasak
Leider is an ensemble that plays songs by Rishin Singh and hails from the city of Berlin. A Fog Like Liars Loving, their debut album, is fragile and delicate music that reflects the darker side of urban living -- themes of addiction, alienation, casual cruelty, and paranoia are present throughout -- while maintaining an understated gallows humor. Though difficult to categorize, they can reference the textures of musique concrète or the structures of Wandelweiser. They can also devolve into cascades of no-wave inspired noise and are almost always just at the edge of falling apart. These eight songs extend a patient hand to the listener, playing with chance and human idiosyncrasy: exposed instrumental playing where the hairs scraping across strings and the air required to produce a note are as important as the notes themselves. Hardly ever truly in tune or in time with one another, yet fully in conversation. Hardly a note that isn't broken or damaged in some way, both antidote and mirror to the disintegration of sedentary life. A Fog Like Liars Loving is an album that takes its time and trusts its audience to do the same, a Cagean unspooling of our "great expectations" that will keep you coming back for more, humming along all the while. Simultaneously unnerving and pleasantly tranquilizing, a path without a path, clear in concept yet deeply sensual, A Fog Like Liars Loving exists in a world of its own. RIYL: Olivier Messiaen, Eva-Maria Houben, John Cale, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Jürg Frey, Morton Feldman, Alexander Scriabin, Nico (minus the racism), Richard Strauss, Scott Walker, Low, Carlo Gesualdo, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Yo La Tengo. Recorded in Summer 2018 at studioboerne45, Berlin. Recorded and mixed by Adam Asnan. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio, New York. Design and photography by Anna Bernhardt.
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BNSD 056LP
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Fusing spacious electronic minimalism, shimmering guitars, and the empyrean voice of Misty Mary, Portland's WL (pronounced "well") arrive at the end of 2020 with an album of lustrous, crystalline Left Coast pop that is destined to be a trusted companion during the long nights ahead. ADHD is a defining statement of purpose for the group, made during a time of personal upheaval and featuring an evocative song cycle that begs to be listened to on repeat. From the slow gallop of "Show Me" to the all-consuming gale that is "Voices", listening to the album from start to finish is like taking an autumnal walk across one of the city's iconic bridges, a cinematic embrace that feels both protective and expansive. The album's alchemical magic is revealed through the depth of its deceptively simple song structures, with each song blooming into its own mini-cosmos. Ruminative, self-assured, and spun through with warmth, ADHD reveals WL to be in a class of their own. And if "Water's On My Side" isn't the most Portland of songs, we don't know what is. RIYL: Still Corners, Chromatics, Broadcast, The XX. Recorded in North Portland, 2019. Mixed By Spencer Doran. Mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk. Cover art by Jonathan McCabe. Includes download; edition of 500. "WL makes the kind of music that's so visual it doesn't even need the customary accompanying video. Like the Oregon Coast, the band's atmospheric sound is vaporous and brooding." --Willamette Week
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BNSD 055LP
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Lebanese musician, producer, and sound engineer Fadi Tabbal's work consists of guitar pieces ranging from stripped acoustics to ambient and electronic-inspired treatments. He has released four solo albums since 2013, including The Museum Of Disappearing Buildings (BNSD 023LP) and Music For The Lonely Vol. 1 (2017-2018) and recently spearheaded the Beirut Musicians Fund, set up to aid musicians in Beirut who lost equipment in the explosion at the Port of Beirut. Tabbal is a full-time member of several Lebanese bands including electronic duo Stress/Distress and The Bunny Tylers (with Charbel Haber) and has collaborated with Mike Cooper, Postcards, Sharif Sehnaoui, Kinematik, and Oiseaux-Tempete, to name but a few.
Lebanon's capital city of Beirut sits on one of the world's most turbulent fault lines, with a hostile and expansionist neighbor to the south (the settler-colonial apartheid state of Israel), a civil-war-riven country to the east and north (Syria), and a domestic situation that features a deeply-corrupt sectarian ruling elite, millions of refugees from Palestine and Syria, months of revolutionary protests, and a collapsed economy. Beirut, however, has long been a vibrant and diverse beacon of Arab and Mediterranean culture. Recent decades have seen the emergence of an internationally-recognized contemporary music, art, and dance scene; a vocal LGBTQ+ movement; and an interconnected web of efforts around refugee rights, democratic government, public health, and environmental concerns. Equal parts heartbreaking and inspiring, the city carries on, even thrives, against all odds. The massive explosion at the Port of Beirut on August 4th, which decimated some of the city's most beautiful and progressive neighborhoods, stands indeed as a tragic example of some of the worst ills afflicting humanity in 2020. But it also revealed a few long-simmering reasons for hope: citizens coming together in widespread acts of mutual aid, emphasizing what brings people together over what divides them, and rising up en masse against a corrupt economic system and the geopolitical power structures it engenders. As American cities revolt against totalitarianism and for racial justice, with Portland at the forefront, Lebanon beckons as both a cautionary tale and an example of the persistence necessary in order to take down a dying order in an era of existential threats.
Recorded and mixed between January and April 2020 at Tunefork Studios and at home, Beirut. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll. Release by Beacon Sound and Ruptured. Includes download; edition of 300.
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BNSD 047LP
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Beacon Sound presents the debut album by Portland duo Methods Body, a co-release with New Amsterdam. "Dark twin, meet your light twin." That's how musicians and best friends John Niekrasz and Luke Wyland were first introduced to each other in 2007. It's an apt description of the duality and synergy of their musical project Methods Body. Using keys/electronics and percussion, the two maximize the duo configuration to create music at once primal and futuristic. Overflowing with polyrhythms and layers of microtonal melodies, the two suites on Methods Body's self-titled debut conjure a sense of traveling through space and time to a prismatic, post-human landscape. No strangers to instrumental innovation, Niekrasz and Wyland are known for their previous acclaimed projects: Wyland's art-pop ensemble AU, and Niekrasz's virtuosic experimental duo Why I Must Be Careful. Having played together in improvisational contexts for more than a decade, they committed to Methods Body in 2016 by spending five days a week in their Portland, Oregon, studio composing and interrogating themselves about their usefulness as artists in "combating the distressing geopolitical climate." Working with the same therapist, Wyland and Niekrasz began to focus on their personal relationship "as a model of creative love through nurturant masculinity." Their vision for Methods Body crystallized as they journeyed to remote landscapes to record together. First, to a historic saloon in the Mojave desert -- Pioneertown's Red Dog Saloon -- then, to a 12' by 16' cabin in the primeval Oregon forest where they slept on the floor beneath their instruments. Methods Body creates instrumental music with language at its core. Niekrasz and Wyland's contrasting relationships with language allow a real alchemy to emerge from the tension between them. Language is foundational for Niekrasz, a poet from the Iowa Writers' Workshop who studies the cross-cultural traditions of verbally-inspired drumming. He uses syllabic notation to form intricate rhythmical patterns that bloom into wild tangentry. As a stutterer, Wyland's approach to music is informed by his idiosyncratic relationship with language. The cadences of broken speech and use of technology as an aid in communication are fundamental to his musical vocabulary. Featured on track "Claimed Events Pt. 2 - Overheard", vocalist Holland Andrews (Like A Villain) reveals the linguistic heart of this music with a virtuosic call to action. RIYL: Terry Riley, Dawn Of Midi, Konono No 1, Silver Apples, Aphex Twin, Battles, Four Tet, Kelly Moran.
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LP
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BNSD 046LP
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Portland and Beirut rub shoulders again as Beacon Sound and Ruptured reveal their second co-release, the new album by Lebanese ensemble Kinematik entitled Murur al-Kiram. Kinematik hails from the mountain village of Reyfoun. Formed in the summer of 2014, they recorded their debut album Ala' in the spring of 2017 and released it on Ruptured (RPTD 017CD/LP). The band is known for the elaborate visual setup of its live shows and has collaborated with a variety of different artists over the years in an effort to carefully craft each of its performances. Kinematik has toured extensively in Lebanon and Europe, re-scored Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1930's classic film Vampyr for the the 23rd European Film Festival in Beirut, and contributed soundtrack pieces for Lebanese filmmakers Ghassan Salhab's Une Rose Ouverte (2019) and Sarah Kaskas' Underdown. Murur al-Kiram uses electronics, intricate double-drumming, guitar, and bass to construct ambient soundscapes and hypnotic, propulsive rhythms -- conjuring the ghosts of a diminishing future as well as an unresolved past. Subtle in both angst and joy, the album celebrates small victories in the face of great defeats, echoing the band's conflicted mindset towards life in their country and community. The record was recorded over a period of two months, and features Teddy Tawil joining the band as second drummer. Whereas Ala' saw Kinematik's four core musicians confining themselves to one instrument and/or role within the overall sonic construct of the band, these new compositions see each musician playing and equally at ease with several instruments, adding intensity, cohesiveness, and a sense of fluidity to the proceedings. The intent was to make a record that would sound like a single traveling shot, beginning with the musicians' childhood in their hometown, through their adult lives weighted down by the corruption and theft endemic to the Lebanese political system, until they are buried back in their place of birth. The salutary presence of Sary (newborn son of synth player Rudy Ghafari) that became the "raison d'être" of the record. Murur al-Kiram is the story of an important chapter in the band's history, one marked by uncertainty and hesitation, yet solid and vibrant in spite of the latter. With the recent mass protests against dire, still unresolved social conditions, a vision of a democratic and post-sectarian Lebanon has come into view. Recorded by Fadi Tabbal at Tunefork Studios in Beirut. Includes download code; Edition of 300.
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BNSD 040LP
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Randall Taylor joins the Beacon Sound roster and graces the label with his finest work yet, Between Distant And Remote. Taylor uses tape loops, guitar, field recordings, and electronic processing to pay homage to the paradox of memory and growth, creating a deeply immersive musical landscape in the process. The album is reflective of the artist's move from Austin, Texas to lush, green Portland in 2018, and also represents a more intentional and layered recording process. Exploring narratives of longing, dislocation, and rediscovery, Between Distant And Remote invites you to dive in and break down the boundaries between yourself and the world around you, reaching into the past to deconstruct the present.
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BNSD 041LP
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Beacon Sound presents Lower River, the debut solo album by Michael A. Muller. Conceptually, the album explores the place where time, space, and self are occluded -- a field of pure energy and creation similar to "the flow" or Zen state where ideas stream without impediment. Inspired by Muller's own remote travels throughout the US and Europe and the personal exploration of a meditative practice, it's a sonic exploration of what it means to deeply listen versus to merely hear, to immerse oneself in navigating the subconscious plane of pure energy and deep, immersive creativity. In 2006, multi-instrumentalist Muller co-founded the Austin-based ensemble Balmorhea; over 13 years he has co-led the group through six full-length records, numerous EPs, global tours, and original scores and worldwide track placements. Lower River began as a sound experiment in 2018 spanning from the isolated Oregon coast to rural Southern Italy and remote fishing villages in the South of France. With a tape recorder in hand, Muller chronicled his journeys through sound, contemplating along the way what it means to deeply listen amid a modern narrative underwritten by distraction. Merging his field recordings with original compositions recorded in his home studio in Austin, Lower River is a sonic venture into other worlds and into the depths of one's own mind; a study in engaging with sounds that don't easily slot into pre-existing notions of what an album "ought" to be. The final composition includes works by avant bass clarinetist Jonathan Siela (Golden Retriever), vocals by Heather Woods Broderick (known for work with Sharon Van Etten and Efterklang), and abstract double bass and cello by Balmorhea's Sam Pankey and Elan Green, respectively. The album cover art was made by renowned Dutch photographer Awoiska Van Der Molen. Includes download code and Riso print.
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BNSD 035LP
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Portland composer and pianist Derek Hunter Wilson returns with his second album, entitled Steel, Wood, & Air. Ten lush, expressive pieces featuring piano, bass clarinet, and strings, this collection reflects the efforts of a young musician challenging himself and discovering his voice in the process. Inspired equally by the contemporary neoclassical scene and early recordings on the ECM label, Steel, Wood, & Air stands, timeless and buoyant, on its own. After releasing his debut album, Travelogue (BNSD 016LP, 2017), Wilson set about re-examining what it means to be a composer. This reappraisal revealed a path toward self-discovery that in turn led to the gradual unfolding of Steel, Wood, & Air, a surprisingly rich endeavor given its strict palette, elemental mindset, and determination to avoid overdubs. Wilson was also invited to contribute a track to Thesis (Loscil, Julianna Barwick, Dustin O'Halloran), the label curated by artist Gregory Euclide. His response, the 10-minute "A New Way of Thinking (In Three Stages)", hinted at things to come and was paired with fellow Beacon Sound alumni Rauelsson for a limited edition split 10" release in late 2018. Early on in the process of writing the album, Wilson stumbled across the lectures of David Lang, about which he writes: "Listening to him talk about composing and seeing his enthusiasm for being a composer, and the field in general, made me feel like I had permission to feel that way too. It made me more conscious about what could be possible in contemporary classical music. Listening to him impressed upon me the importance of honesty in creating music. It creates a need as the creator to examine what is essential to them, and that in one sense is what music is or can be -- it's a tool to use to figure out who you are as a person. And honesty is key to this. It's a journey that I'm just at the beginning stages of." From the attention-arresting opening track "Different Opinions" to the unabashedly gorgeous "Knife Fight", and through to the meditative resolution of "Steel, Wood, & Air #7", this is an album with open arms bringing gifts for those who listen carefully. Cover photo by Brett Kallusky. Design by FISK Projects. Recorded at Type Foundry and The Map Room in Portland. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll. Includes two-sided insert and download code; edition of 300. "An evocative cycle that promises to be one of the season's highlights." --A Closer Listen
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BNSD 034LP
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Beacon Sound and Jacktone Records announce a limited-edition joint vinyl release by Hugo RA Paris entitled Threaded Habitat. The new LP from Paris follows two of Jacktone's most popular releases: Mystique Youth (2015) and Horizons Beneath The Surface (2016), which appeared under his alias, Lavender. The transition to the Hugo RA Paris moniker with this album marks a more personal shift in approach. Threaded Habitat combines ambient textures and techno rhythms to reflect tension between humanity and nature -- particularly the cyclical nature of collapse and renewal. It also marks Beacon Sound's first collaborative release with Jacktone, a Detroit and Berlin-based label co-owned by Darren Cutlip and Doc Sleep, specializing in techno, house, ambient, and experimental electronics. Paris resides in Portland and developed the flagship modular product for leading Eurorack manufacturer 4MS: the SWN. The album's closing track was entirely composed on a SWN prototype and recorded in one take. In fact, much of his work is done in layers of single takes with minimal processing to preserve its raw emotion and embrace minor imperfections. As an MIT-trained engineer and physicist, working with hardware -- from modulars to guitar pedals and tape loops -- is essential to his process of not only making but exploring sound. Threaded Habitat captures moments of claustrophobia and bliss in seven tracks and three accompanying videos directed by New Zealand artist Sam Hamilton. Visual art plays a central role in many of Paris's projects, which include intricate audio-visual performances and scores for full-length films like The Modern Jungle (La Selva Negra) and its forthcoming follow-up. Handmade vinyl package. Lacquer cut and mastering by Dietrich Schoenemann. Includes download code; Edition of 300.
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BNSD 033LP
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OFFICIAL RSD 2019 release. Beacon Sound present a reissue of the 1993 album Euphoria by UK duo Insides (previously Earwig). Euphoria sits at the crossroads of a very exciting time in the early 1990s when artists like Seefeel, Moonshake, and Aphex Twin were mining emerging technologies and pushing British music in new directions. A leftfield electronic pop album without peer, Euphoria incorporates programmed beats, elements of neoclassical minimalism, and the soothing voice and acerbic lyrics of singer Kirsty Yates into a memorable and masterful collection of songs that sound Like nothing else, either then or now. Reviews at the time reference composers like Steve Reich and Brian Eno as well as groups like My Bloody Valentine and AR Kane and describe it as being both "danceable" and "ambient". Originally released on 4AD offshoot label Guernica (Unrest, Bettie Serveert, Spoonfed Hybrid), it made many year-end lists in 1993 and demands rediscovery and reappraisal in 2019 given our current era of genre-splicing experimentation. Licensed from 4AD and remastered by Julian Tardo from HD audio files transferred from the original tapes, the LP will feature the original packaging as well as a new insert with press clippings from the era and liner notes by Simon Reynolds, who coined the term "post-rock" while writing about the group in 1993. Limited edition of 2000; gold-foil numbering.
From Simon Reynolds liner notes: "Those who heard the record back in '93 may not be able to escape their own wistful hankerings for the early Nineties and its lost promise, it's true. But if you're listening to Euphoria for the first time, I think you will be surprised how modern it still sounds in 2019, an astonishing twenty-six years after it came out."
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BNSD 032LP
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Beacon Sound presents a first-time collaboration between Thomas Meluch (aka Benoit Pioulard) and Sean Curtis Patrick, entitled Avocationals. Over the course of nine songs the two use synthesizers, reel-to-reel tape machines, field recordings, guitar, and processed voice to conjure the ghosts of 20th century Great Lakes shipwrecks. From the muffled thumping of "Stonefax", which might bring to mind the cracking and bowing of a ship on its way to the lake bottom, to the pulsating vocal drone that guides "Sunek", evoking peril and loss, each of these songs brings to mind the final moments of doomed seafarers and their cargo-laden ships, the disintegration of hubris, the fraying of memory. By the time "Cabot" rolls around, like a lonely fog horn crossing the waves on a stormy night, the effect is of watching a decaying film loop that is somehow not only representative of a distant past but also of what perhaps lies ahead. Wintery, yet humming throughout with a narcotic warmth, Avocationals will pull you underwater and submerge you in the murky depths of a lost world. As the artists themselves write, "An avocational is an amateur diver who assists in rescue, investigation and salvage relating to watercraft disasters. Dozens of freighters and small sank during the mid-20th century golden age of shipping on the Great Lakes; this album is about nine of them." Sean Curtis Patrick is a visual artist, photographer, adventurer, and musician. He has created art, design, and music videos for artists like Alessandro Cortini, Benoit Pioulard, Bana Haffar, Richard Devine, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Rafael Anton lrisarri, and many others. ln 2018, Sean directed and sound tracked a documentary about the devastation of the island of Puerto Rico after the hurricanes of 2017. He is an alumnus of the Banff Centre Musicians in Residence program and debuted new solo material on a Japanese tour in late 2018. Sean has released albums on Day Dot, Beacon Sound, and Muzan Editions. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Benoit Pioulard weaves natural sounds and textures of decay into his vague-pop songs, colored with the lushness and unpredictability of field recordings. His numerous albums for Kranky, Beacon Sound, and Morr Music document an evolving relationship with guitar, voice, and frayed layers of fidelity, alternately melodic, muted, and diffuse. He resides in Seattle, Washington. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll. Includes download card and insert; Edition of 300.
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LP
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BNSD 031LP
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The brand new album from artist and musician Dolphin Midwives (aka Sage Fisher), Liminal Garden is released by Beacon Sound. The album will be preceded by a single, Mirror, including a remix from Pye Corner Audio. Using harp, voice, and electronic processing, Liminal Garden features ten compositions, bringing to mind artists such as Mary Lattimore and Holly Herndon. It is a controlled and dynamic album that blends the organic with the digital, resulting in a body of work that fuses tranquility and rupture. The album was recorded in early 2018 by Jason Powers (The Decemberists, Chromatics, Matthew Dear) at Type Foundary, and mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio (Alva Noto, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Benoît Pioulard, Grouper, School of Seven Bells, Tycho). The artwork has been designed by Bijan Berahimi at FISK. Says Fisher, "This album changed as I made it. This album is about change, about finding beauty and acceptance in the fractured, broken and vulnerable places. It's about integration, of all of my selves, of the natural world and technology, of all of the brokenness and imperfection and insecurity and fragility of being femme in a patriarchal society." Cardboard sleeve, printed/manufactured in the USA. Edition of 500, includes download.
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2LP
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BNSD 029LP
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"This work, a masterpiece of restraint, reflects the musical imagination of someone who has spent long periods in the quiet recesses of the mind." --Terry Riley
Beacon Sound present a reissue of Hans Otte's The Book Of Sounds (Das Buch Der Klänge) originally released in 1984. Hans Otte (1926-2007) was a multifaceted artist, poet, pianist, composer, and promoter who synthesized the strands of minimalism, Eastern spirituality, and radical art into his own unique and protean vision. In his younger years he studied under the composer Paul Hindemith and the pianist Walter Gieseking. From 1959 to 1984 he was the director of Radio Bremen and was instrumental in introducing artists such as John Cage, Terry Riley, and Steve Reich to European audiences. Although the compositions and recordings that Otte made over the course of his long career are wideranging, The Book Of Sounds is considered to be his masterwork. A solo piano piece, it was written between 1979 and 1982 after a major survey of his previous artistic output and should be viewed through the prism of his own self-development: both as a return to his roots and as a new beginning. It is a cyclical collection of 12 "chapters" that are inspired partly by John Cage's desire to get to the root of sound itself, to liberate it from the weight of expectation and tradition and to view all sound as a manifestation of nature. In a 1979 interview, Otte answered a question about whether his work had a "common core" by saying, "I would say that behind my artistic work, as an aim or hope, is the need to find myself. In other words: despite all the separating structures, the division of all the work, the ideologies, fixed ideas, systems, despite the state and everything that ceaselessly tries to separate and divide us, I fundamentally want to be complete." It might be tempting to assign The Book Of Sounds to the aesthetic of minimalism; however, it is a deceptively sophisticated collection of pieces that unfolds slowly over repeated listens with shifting harmonics and unusual structural touches that keep it firmly on the side of "avant-garde". Includes booklet with contemporary liner note contributions by Terry Riley, Inga Ahmels, and Dustin O'Halloran as well as a reprint of a 1982 Village Voice live review by Tom Johnson and photos taken by his daughter Silvia. First edition of 500.
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Cassette
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BNSD 030CS
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Cassette Store Day 2018 release. Amsterdam experimental psych-pop group Spill Gold emerged with a heady buzz in 2017, self-releasing a debut fifty-copy cassette EP, Spill Gold that sold out instantly and earned them opening slots for the likes of St. Vincent, Beak, DJ Katapila, and Exploded View. Spill Gold conjure up vivid, spiraling stories with their eerie, persistent songs. From the frenetic steel drum solo on "Mercury", the relentless, post-punk urgency of instrumental "Seven's March", to the snake-charming synths and haunting vocals on "Sirens", you won't be able to get these songs out of your head once you hear them. Propulsive and addictive, this is music meant to be blasted on your car stereo as you drive alone towards an uncertain horizon. Beacon Sound will be releasing an expanded edition of Spill Gold, featuring remixes by members of US Girls and Doomsquad. Spill Gold is the project of Nina de Jong and Rosa Ronsdorf. They worked with American singer Jessica Tucker for Spill Gold, which was recorded and mixed in Ghent by Belgian producer Koen Gisen, and are currently collaborating with multi-instrumentalist Jochem van Tol; expect much more from them in the coming years. Edition of 100 includes download code, insert on recycled paper by Stumptown Printers and Rx Letterpress.
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LP
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BNSD 027LP
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Finnish artist Laura Naukkarinen returns with her fourth album as Lau Nau and her first for Beacon Sound. Poseidon is a suite of delicate, wise songs that exist in a world all their own, treading the line between chamber folk and experimental pop with a distinctly Scandinavian melancholy. Centered around Laura's beautiful voice and piano (with lyrics sung entirely in Finnish), the album also includes a small cast of guest musicians on electronics, cello, bowed lyre, clarinet, harmonium, and more. Each song is a gem of its own, with lustrous melodies spun from the web of seasons, by turns ghostly and earthy. In Laura's own words: "I was playing with my grandmother's piano and shortly realized that I was composing songs are beginning for a new Lau Nau album instead of the film music that I was working on. The songs wanted to be performed on stage by a character called Lau Nau. It's the melancholic, always dreaming part of me that stands on the stage and shares these fragile moments with the audience. The songs on Poseidon are small secular prayers and messages of love, sorrow and care. Poseidon is a god of the sea but also the name of a certain bar... He veils us in the fog when the night falls." RIYL: Múm, El Perro Del Mar, Bjork, Efterklang. Design by Bijan Berahimi and Christine Shen for FISK. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll. Includes double-sided insert with lyrics in both Finnish and English and download card; Edition of 600.
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LP
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BNSD 023LP
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Lebanese musician, producer, and sound engineer Fadi Tabbal's work consists of guitar pieces ranging from stripped acoustics to ambient and shoegaze-inspired treatments. Tabbal has been central to the thriving Beirut music scene since the late 2000s, running Tunefork Studios and playing in multiple bands, including Under The Carpet and The Bunny Tylers. He has collaborated with Lebanese art ensemble The Feel Collective, Nada Kano's Beirut-based dance company, and numerous film producers. Museum of Disappearing Buildings is his second solo album and the first co-release from Portland-based Beacon Sound and Beirut-based Ruptured. It is an album of ambient guitar drones and grainy electronics that reflects the precarious political and social environment of Beirut while also being inspired by the impossible structures of Russian paper architects Brodsky and Utkin. Limited edition of 300.
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LP
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BNSD 022LP
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After the sold-out cassette release of Stanza / Stanza II on Beacon Sound in 2015 (a co-release with Baro) and 2016's The Benoit Pioulard Listening Matter on Kranky, Seattle's Thomas Meluch returns with a brand new Benoit Pioulard album of ambient bliss. Floating on a plume of pure shoegaze, Lignin Poise conjures nature, specifically the waters and forests of the Cascadia bioregion, as ecstatic reverie. It is a work of deliberate renewal in a time of global tumult. A golden oasis of deep memory open to all seekers; hallucinogenic, like stumbling into one of the verdant. highly-oxygenated upper canyons of the Columbia River Gorge on a late spring morning, soaking in the warm humidity and cool mist. In Tom's own words: "I recorded this album during the fall and winter of last year, and it's thematically meant to trace a path through decay, death, and regeneration over the course of the tracks. My flat/studio is surrounded by deciduous trees (a huge deal for me especially since I live in the heart of the city) so those patterns were right in my face every day while I was recording. Lignin forms the support systems of vascular plants, so the title is intended to convey the posture and temporariness of life in full bloom."
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Cassette
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BNSD 021CS
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Comprised of songs, vignettes, and arrangement experiments, Sketchbook: March 2015 - March 2016 presents selected studio recordings made by drummer Neal Morgan. It is his fourth solo record, and includes, for the first time, music composed using instruments other than drums and voices. Half of the songs were composed as "music intended to score imagined scenes" in response to the story of the Rajneeshpuram settlement near Antelope, Oregon in the mid-1980s. About the scoring work, Neal wrote: "On March 11, 2015, I tagged along with filmmakers Chapman and Maclain Way to see the former Rajneeshpuram site. The brothers told me about much of their research during that visit and showed me some archival footage. Particular visuals stuck with me: the desert landscape; the different hues of the red robes; the shining Rolls Royces out in the desert; the eyes and smile of the guru Bhagwan; red robes with rifles; the formerly homeless men expressing hopes and thanks for community and rebirth. Dreams of acceptance, family, utopia, safety, and then also fear and pain. . . . At its core, drumming, like scoring for moving image and story, is about creating and managing tension. I made many sketches responding to the elements that haunted me -- things that perhaps had happened or been felt or thought of by children or adults there. Situations, colors, visuals. The music in turn created new stories, new sights, and new tensions. It was like making music to score -- and simultaneously to create and direct -- imagined scenes of an imagined film." Morgan is perhaps best known for his work with two of the finest songwriters of his generation, Joanna Newsom and Bill Callahan. He first accompanied Newsom in 2006, when he arranged drums and percussion for the live performance of her classic second album Ys (2006) and began performing as a part of her touring band. He arranged and performed all of the drums and percussion on Newsom's triple album Have One On Me (2010) and on three of the songs from Divers (2015). He began playing with Callahan as a duo in 2009 and arranged and performed drums and percussion on Apocalypse (2011). Screen printed in Portland at The Make House; Hand-painted by Morgan in Berkeley. Includes a fold-out insert designed by the artist and a download code; Edition of 100.
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LP
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BNSD 016LP
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Travelogue is the first album by 26-year-old Portland composer Derek Hunter Wilson. By turns harrowing, poignant, and restrained, it is remarkably accomplished for a debut. Centered around Derek's masterful piano playing, Travelogue also features accompaniment on violin by Peter Broderick (Erased Tapes, Beacon Sound) as well as field recordings, cello, harp, and synthesizers. One of the most interesting musical conversations happening today is in the dynamic meeting ground where modern composition and experimental/ambient music overlap. This collection of songs adds to that conversation, alongside recent work by Julia Kent, Max Richter, and Jóhann Jóhannsson, while retaining its own sense of style and place. Embedded in the rainy ethos of contemporary Cascadia, listening to Travelogue brings to mind watching the cranes work through a water streaked window. Cover painting by Jason Vance Dickason; Design by Bijan Berahimi. Includes two-sided Risograph-print insert and download card; Edition of 500.
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Cassette
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BNSD 013CS
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2015 release. Second edition of Beacon Sound's cassette version of Colleen's 2003 debut album, initially released for Cassette Store Day 2015. Hand-numbered edition of 100. Black cassette shell. Fold-over box manufactured and printed by Stumptown Printers. "One of those rare, truly evocative abstract pieces of art where every observer takes away their own interpretation, and is left feeling a little more special about their experience as a result." --Pitchfork, 2004 (8.4)
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