the ivytree

the ivytree ~ a pillar of clouds (tall texan, 2019)

 

The Ivytree is a solo project from San Francisco musician Glenn Donaldson, who has been in a number of groups championed in the DIY underground over the past 20 plus years. Glenn was a founder of the influential Jeweled Antler Collective releasing some of the best underground Bay Area projects of the early 21st century, but he's also been in bands spanning an array of genres; from the drone and experimental works of groups like Thuja and Blithe Sons and psychedelic jangle of Skygreen Leopards.

His Ivytree project is probably described as a tapestry of drones, field recordings, and ghostly folk, interwoven in a haunting tapestry, perfect for the approaching fall and winter."

listen ~ buy

the ivytree

the ivytree ~ unburdened light lp (recital program, 2018)

"The Ivytree, as some may know, is the project of San Franciscan musician Glenn Donaldson. In the early 2000s Glenn was a founder of the Jewelled Antler Collective, forming such projects as The Blithe Sons, Thuja, and The Skygreen Leopards, among many others. I admire the range of projects he is associated with, they all beautifully web together. Between 2001 and 2005 Donaldson published a handful of discs under the names The Ivytree and The Birdtree. These boiled down and tanned the patient, outdoor ambiences of the long-form instrumental recordings. These were slow and pastoral and pensive songs, carried by Glenn’s haunting voice: my favorite of his work. Glenn recorded outside with field-recorders and mini-discs: in forests, headlands, and tunnels of the Bay area.

I grew up listening to his recordings ~ throughout high school and college in Goleta, CA. They spark many memories: driving around beach parking lots, dragging boomboxes into creeks, camping in the mountain valleys etc. I remember once driving 5 hours up to San Francisco with a group of friends to try and get into a Giant Skyflower Band concert (another Donaldson project). It was at a bar and we were under 21 ~ so we couldn’t get in, even after trying to bribe the doorman. As you can tell, very special places in my mind and memory. My fondness for The Ivytree never dissipated, and I always dreamed of hearing more material from that time, as I know how prolific the Jewelled Antler association can be.

On a whim in 2017 I reached out to Glenn and asked him if he wanted to publish a “best-of” The Ivytree as a limited LP. This idea blossomed and provoked Glenn to dig through his vast mini-disc archive, where he unearthed some forgotten jewels. The recordings were trickling in to my email ~ one by one, each better than the last... Ranging from the Robert Wyatt-esque piano ballad “Evil is Circular” to the gentle melancholy of “All the White Plumes” that could belong on Richard Youngs’ Sapphie. Unburdened Light carries on the warm breeze and innocence of the early 2000s CDr culture. 

So our project then turned into publishing a new album of unreleased Ivytree recordings. A full circle youthful wish now ripens in my adulthood. I am honored to have stirred up the bees-nest to deliver you these tragically honeyed songs"

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hala strana

hala strana ~ box set c64/c81/c44/2xc42 (cabin floor esoterica, 2014)

"from 2003 to 2010 Steven R. Smith recorded under the name Hala Strana. using an assortment of instruments (some handmade, like his hurdy gurdy and spike fiddle) Smith recreated and re-imaged traditional Eastern European folk music, making the songs his own. this has really got it all ~ from his crumbling guitar to the dancing fiddle, stove-pipe percussion and the occasional tape warble. there hasn't been anything quite like this since. at times the songs are intensely cinematic, at others beautifully chaotic. these songs are are here to transport you. 

the box includes five tapes with all the recorded Hala Strana output, including 'Compendium' a previously digital-only collection of outtakes, compilation and EP tracks. limited to 50 copies tied in twine and laid on a bed of wood shavings in a chipboard box with pasted-on full color art, a twelve page booklet of notes, two handwritten and numbered inserts on handmade paper, two vintage Eastern European postage stamps and a risograph print."

out of stock ~ download* (thanks to vacuumworld for the rip)

* new mp3 w/ titles & labels

loren chasse

 ~ imaging a sort of sleigh to carry our 21 year old dog across an emotionally and physically tough winter landscape....~

no pierdo la esperanza de que algún día vuelva Jewelled Antler, aunque sólo fuera para juntar en una cinta todas las grabaciones que Loren Chasse deja de vez en cuando en soundcloud. 'breet's long winter's leap' es especialmente bonita.

foto: carla fernández andrade

loren chasse ~ breet's long winter's leap

ulaan passerine

  ulaan passerine ~ ulaan passerine 2xcs (brave mysteries, 2013)

"It is a supreme honor to have commissioned the latest work from the great American multi-instrumentalist Steven R. Smith; and this album is beyond what we could have imagined to receive in response. many know Steven R. Smith from his picture perfect albums of inspired Eastern European folk music under the name Hala Strana and his tours of duty with the legendary naturopathic post-industrial ensemble known as Thuja. more recently, aside from recordings under his birth name, Smith has graced listeners with the far-reaching circular psych maneuvers of the Ulaan series of works, which has thus far birthed Ulaan Khol, Ulaan Markhor, and this newest incarnation~Ulaan Passerine.  this, our first ever double cassette release, features four side-long steady desert marches wrapped in epic swathes of mellotron and twisting sine waves. between the royal gestures of his guitar and keyboard driven passages, snake precious minimalist prayer bell loops, electric piano mantras and pastoral drones. from the faintest trace of ether, Steven R. Smith can pull a stunning atmosphere that surrounds and plunges us into a massive inner world of stoic trance and life-affirming harmony. a master at all manner of string instrument, Smith coaxes his triumphant songs with a slow hand reminiscent of a Dylan Carlson or Jozef van Wissem, if either of them were caught ruminating with a 6-string acoustic guitar, lost in the deep wild West."

pasan los años y el poder de fascinación de todo lo que rodea a Steven R. Smith no es que se mantenga intacto sino que parece no tener fin. siempre tendré la sensación de que el duende que un día formó parte de Jewelled Antler seguirá haciendo discos bonitos durante una eternidad. es nuestro Steven R. Smith, más Steven R. Smith y más Hala Strana que nunca, más acogedor y orgánico que Ulaan Khol o Ulann Markhor. suscribo cada palabra de The Inarguable, sobre todo cuando dice que esta nueva reencarnación es casi como la culminación y fusión de toda su obra. algo así como el eslabón perdido entre las grabaciones de campo y la música tradicional de Europa del Este de Hala Strana y Thuja y las atmósferas y los ragas de guitarra improvisados de Ulaan Khol. una doble cinta de cassette, casi dos horas, sin igual. porque con dulces bajadas y subidas, con el piano y su inconfundible guitarra flotante, campanillas, teclados, drones pastorales y tonadillas medievales (minuto 8:30... tan irlandés), Ulann Passerine da para mucho... muchísimo. lo tiene todo: folk artesanal, free folk, minimalismo rural y unos desarrollos que recuerdan a Popol Vuh, Fred Frith, Jozef van Wissem e incluso a Tara Burke (los primeros minutos de la primera canción de la cara a...mmm).  la cara b, una arrolladora y ancestral celebración de libertad, es mi favorita pero el cambio a partir del minuto 4:50 de la cara c, que fluye con delicadeza pastoral hasta llegar a lo más profundo, es de pelos de punta. sí, Hala Strana forever.

fotos: luke byrne

listen/name your price ~ see ~ buy

whysp

 whysp - s/t (good village/yik yak/love tape love, 2004)

Only just now I tried a summer sell-out copy of Santa Cruz based band Whysp's first LP. It was recorded in Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie)'s Nowhere studios in 2004. The band was formed by a trio (Josh Alper, Hugh Holden and Jeffrey Manson), but quickly became a loose musical communal foundation featuring members like Glenn Donaldson (Skygreen Leopards, Thuja and The Blithe Sons), Christine Boepple, Hugh Guthrie Holden, Jr., Ia Hernandez, Jeffrey Manson, Michele Hannigan, Caroyln Pennypacker-Riggs, Margaretha Haughwout, Karl Blau, Tom Child, Phil Elverum, Aaron "A-Ron" Emmert, Nicky "Dinosaur" Emmert, Kyle Field, John Garmon, Mike May, Adam "Handel" Payne, Niki Selken, Emily White (...) The band very much was inspired by Forest, an Incredible String Band alike UK folk band, with the new version of that band they were going to do some new recordings.

The first side showed an attractive mixture of the forest people meet 60s sounds with an Incredible String Band alike touch and a few more strummed Syd Barrett directions. The vocal harmonies of the full band are one of the strongest parts throughout the album. There are some weird flute harmonies, some mouth harmonica, 60s psych organ. There's an overall acoustic feeling, a playing with some loose ends, nearly amateurish. And somewhat primitively recorded and played with band's enjoyment, with a context like being involved with nursery rhymes, lullabies and ballads. On the second side some less convincing, with somewhat lazily sung male vocal songs with simple strums dominate more, which takes away some of the enjoyment elsewhere, the primitivisms, despite its charm, could have been recorded better. psychedelic folk

foto: blind-alley

steven r. smith | ulaan khol

steven r. smith ~ floor of the sky 12'' (burnt toast vynil, 2011)

"...mostly the solo stuff is just music I did on my own that doesn't have any set parameters, like Hala Strana or Ulaan Khol, to define it. With those projects, I know going into it that it's going to be this specific thing, but other times I just make music and it doesn't have any specific aesthetic that I'm trying to do and it needs to go somewhere so it usually just winds up under my own name, for lack of anything else. But having said that, I suppose looking back, some records like Kohl, or the Anchorite, and Owl as well, are a bit more personal and are usually more modest and minimal and probably do actually sound like one person in a room playing music, so it's fitting that it's released under my own name. The other end of that would be Hala Strana or Ulaan Khol where I am going out of my way to try and make it sound more like a group of people playing at once." steven r.smith

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ulaan khol ~ la catacomb (soft abuse, 2011)

"La Catacomb, purloined from a great abyss of uncertainty, is finally among us. The fourth album proper from Smith’s blisteringly psychedelic “power trio” guise, La Catacomb languished for a few years awaiting release from this label & that before landing at Soft Abuse HQ. La Catacomb is the perfect follow-up to Ulaan Khol’s Ceremony trilogy, offering more smoulder than flame, more rumination than provocation. Smith's meticulously-crafted heavy drones & drift have rarely sounded this harmonic and zoned. Once again, he's pushed further out. Edition of 200, with gratis download." soft abuse

cualquier cosa relacionada con jewelled antler y alguno de sus supervivientes es siempre una muy buena noticia

buy / download / el cielo

hala strana

hala strana ~ compendium (self-released 2011)

"New Hala Strana release Compendium is now available via download only. This is a compilation of unreleased, e.p., 7", and bonus tracks that were recorded between 2002 and 2007." steven r. smith

 buy / download

the blithe sons

the blithe sons ~ we walk the young earth (family vineyard 2003)

"The Blithe Sons are the duo of Loren Chasse and Glenn Donaldson. Compiled from performances that took place under a creek bridge in San Gregorio on sea cliffs in the Marin Headlands. With acoustic guitar, harps, bells, harmonium, gongs submerged in a creek, cymbals, vocals, banjo, birds, pipes, bell-blocks, drums, branches and the location itself as an instrument, these album weaves minimalist hymns with stark drones. The Blithe Sons conjure an imaginary wilderness through the sounds made within these mysterious locales, combining Chasse's leanings towards tones and percussive textures with Donaldson's folk-inflected melodies" family vineyard

"...But, what about the true meaning of the 'Jewelled Antler'?

Loren Chasse: "The name came up spontaneously one day, while Thuja was playing. It stuck around in our thoughts and appeared later on as a title for a song. This didn't quite seem to fulfill the potential of this image, and so when Glenn and I decided to begin a label there was the Jewelled Antler, waiting as the perfect mascot for our imagined musics." perfect sound forever

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darren tate

darren tate ~ late afternoon • for keijo (fungal 2010)

"uk experimentalist Darren Tate unveils his new acid folk persona with a full-length album dedicated to Finnish folk spirit Keijo. This is one of Darren’s most abstract and oddly beautiful releases, with long passages of domestic silence illuminated by bird calls, bells and tinkling percussion... A deeply confounding work." volcanic tongue

"...Late Afternoon finds Tate adopting the beloved Jewelled Antler way of recording out in the wilderness, allowing all of the incidental sounds, manmade and natural, to tread upon whatever musical notes might be generated. Tate doesn't let on to where this recording was made, but it's got something of a natural concrete reverb, it's near an airfield, and it's infested with pigeons...Forest folk minimalism meets field recordings" aquarius 

foto: bea de giacomo

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ulaan khol

ulaan khol ~ III (soft abuse 2010)

"As Ulaan Khol, Steven R. Smith (Hala Strana, Thuja, Mirza) creates dense tapestries that revel in the eternal and infinite. At times recalling Neil Young's score for Jarmusch's Dead Man, III is Steven R. Smith's masterstroke. Not only does this work tie together the Ulaan Khol releases into a cohesive whole, it also stands alone as a groundbreaking, breathtaking amalgam of heavy komische & basement psychedelic freak-outs.

Also available a limited edition handmade birch box that nimbly fits all three volumes of the Ulaan Khol Ceremony series. Edition of 75 printed / stamped boxes, crafted by hand in Minneapolis. Available only from direct from Soft Abuse or via Steven R. Smith's web site." soft abuse

foto via sabino

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of

of - rocks will open (digitalis 2008)

"Loren Chasse is responsible for a whole host of vital albums. He was a founding member of the Jewelled Antler label and has sparked so many great moments from the likes of Thuja, The Blithe Sons, Softwar, and of course his main solo guise, Of. For years this project has evolved into something of absolute magical grandeur. "Rocks Will Open" is the latest opus in Chasse's catalog. The music on this album is as organic as it gets. Each tone, each sound feels like it has been culled directly from the Earth's crust. Gentle drones arc toward the hazy sunlight, flickering like distant birds sailing out over the sea. Between the ghostly echoes rises a cacacphony of plucked strings dancing toward oblivion. Loren Chasse's vision is perfectly expressed on "Rocks Will Open." digitalis

foto: jon edwards

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the blithe sons

the blithe sons - the great orthochromatic wheel (family vineyard lp 2008)

nuevo disco de Loren Chasse y Glenn Donaldson después de casi cinco años, y reedición de la cajita de cuatro cd's de The Jewelled Antler Library, una de esa ediciones originales cuyas ventas en ebay se disparan hasta $350...

"The Great Orthochromatic Wheel is The Blithe Sons first full-length release since 2004. In the years since the California duo of Loren Chasse and Glenn Donaldson may have traversed poppy fields and swam to aqua cities though mostly they've remained active with their Jewelled Antler offshoots: Ov, Of, and Child Readers (Chasse) or Skygreen Leopards and Flying Canyon (Donaldson) and both in Thuja.

These five songs combine nature's melodic pull and minimalist songs forms summoned by a miniature orchestra of eclectic instruments. Each LP side flaunts a different depth of the Sons, one recorded outdoors and the other inside. The indoor set consists of slow-motion ballads built on hymn-like organ, nylon string guitar, analog drum machine & stark percussion. The outdoor side offers a web of exotic wind-instruments & battery-powered electronics reverberating in cavernous hall cut in the side of a sea-cliff." family vineyard

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the blithe sons

the blithe sons - waves of grass (jewelled antler 2001)

"cuando grabamos en la naturaleza, la música se impregna de su sonido, el viento, el espacio acústico, los cuervos siempre presentes, el sonido del mar en la distancia... pero además, perderse en el medio de un bosque es una lección de humildad. me intimida, y creo que influye en mi forma de tocar." Glenn Donaldson

"...‘Waves of Grass’ sí puede darnos una idea de la dirección que las bandas del colectivo Jewelled Antler comenzaban a tomar en sus inicios. Temas como ‘Summer Blazes’ y ‘Tree-Lined Road’ dejan ver la religiosidad y belleza que estos músicos extraían de su comunión con la naturaleza." ruido horrible

"Recorded this past spring in the open air of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Waves of Grass is the second release from The Blithe Sons, an offshoot of the improv-drone ensemble Thuja, featuring Loren Chasse and Glenn Donaldson. this work finds Chasse and Donaldson performing their semi-improvised songs for harmonium drones and gently sad guitar strum for a indifferent audience of grass, insects, and birds in the Park. These extended droning passages occasionally arppegiate into simple melodies and are often interjected by the cackle of a crow or the buzz of a marauding fly. aquarius

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the child readers

The Child Readers - Music Heard Far Off (Soft Abuse 2008)

"Heartbreaking and childlike, “Music Heard Far Off” evokes the surreal poetry of good Dylan with a saner than Daniel Johnston, but still as awed a worldview. If Brian Wilson had been born in 1970, he would have made this record at some point.

Even semi-abrasive tracks like the muted metallic sheen of “Planet Waters” or the lo-fi skronk of “A Tree Waits” have awesomely positive vibes. There is hope by the bucketsful in the seeming chaos and improvisational daring.

This is a naked record too, as the duo of Jason Honea (Social Unrest) and Loren Chasse (Thuja) offer literate haikus that sound confessional even when surreal. Listening to “Son of Man” in particular, one of the more stripped down tracks, feels like an invasion of privacy.

Guitars acoustic and electric drive the grooves, though there are touches of ambient and musique concrete, as well as a dull hiss that often appears as a kind of guide through this poetic and disorienting landscape.

The Child Readers can be trusted, and “Music Heard Far Off” makes you want to trust. This is a gorgeous, if unsettling release that mixes the avant-garde and traditional, the hermetic and open, in stunning fashion. 9/10" Mike Wood (Foxy Digitalis)

por fin se ha hecho realidad el nuevo disco de the Child Readers, y escuchando 'Son of Man' creo que ha valido la pena esperar un año. 'oraciones musicales al campo, momentos del día', y mucha variedad en el tipo de canciones, tonos y referencias (Jewelled Antler, sello carismático y entrañable donde los haya). dieciséis canciones de colores pastel que nacen y mueren en apenas dos minutos, siempre a punto de romperse, como si fueran grabadas con lo que había a mano...

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hala strana

hala strana - heave the gambrel roof (music fellowship 2007)

"Steven R. Smith began recording music under the Hala Strana moniker in 2002 as a way to further explore his interest in traditional Eastern European folk music, apart from his solo releases under his own name and collaborative work in Thuja, Mirza, and other Jewelled Antler creations. Heave the Gambrel Roof is Smith's fourth full length album under the Hala Strana name. The album is a return to the shorter, more song-based form of Fielding and Hala Strana and includes reworks of four traditional Albanian tunes as well as seven original tracks

As with all Hala Strana releases, Heave the Gambrel Roof contains a wide variety of instruments (many built by Smith himself) such as the hurdy gurdy, spike fiddle, gourd guitar, bowed baritone psaltery, bouzouki, xaphoon, and the more common electric guitar, organ, cello, and harmonium. The album includes musical contributions from Loren Chasse (Blithe Sons, Franciscan Hobbies, Of) on one track." music fellowship

"...Hala Strana is a vehicle for Smith to explore, cover, rework and reinterpret Eastern European folk music. ...The covers here, of which there are a handful, Smith makes his own, gorgeous bits of traditional strummy folk become mesmerizing and hypnotic, figures and melodies looped and repeated, sympathetic notes allowed to buzz and wash into one another. A few of the covers sound pretty straight, with just a tiny bit more buzz or drone, but a few are completely transformed, becoming extended atmospheric dreamscapes, like on "Wedding Of The Blind" which sounds like seventies Japanese psych drone ensemble Taj Mahal Travellers jamming with Jack Rose. Absolutely gorgeous." aquarius

Mayo es un mes de celebraciones, y no sólo por la primavera o la coincidencia de algunos cumpleaños señalados, sino por el trío de ases que Music Fellowship se ha sacado de la manga: Tamburo, Claypipe/Pekko Kappi/Blithe Sons y tal vez el momento más esperado, un nuevo disco de nuestro querido Steven R. Smith bajo el nombre de Hala Strana, el auténtico y genuino Jewelled Antler. tradición y paisajes, son las dos palabras que me vienen a la cabeza cuando pienso en Heave the Gambrel Roof (un título precioso signifique lo que signifique). si me paro a pensar un poco más, me vienen otras como The Anchorite, Kohl, (niebla) y campo. magia elemental y simple. suena 'Motra dhe Vellai' y de nuevo me quedo sin palabras. si acaso, freak folk drone appalachian japanese psych drone with an eastern sensibility. el cielo. de la música de Steven R. Smith me gusta su proximidad, como si los instrumentos (hurdy gurdy, spike fiddle, gourd guitar, bowed baritone psaltery, bouzouki, xaphoon, electric guitar, organ, cello, y harmonium) te susurrasen al oído, como si formaran parte de ti, como si no fueran tocados físicamente. once ragas, siete originales y cuatro versiones de canciones tradicionales albanesas, secos, delineados como grietas en madera vieja...sin pretensiones ni estridencias, rehusando disonancias innecesarias. el sonido del spike fiddle, que Steven dibuja y explica en el interior del disco, conmueve en el más amplio sentido de la palabra. 'Marl' y 'Grain' son ya dos clásicos, pero la cara b es toda una celebración campestre. la verdadera naturaleza de la palabra folk, folk del más profundo. y no se puede decir mucho más, sólo recomendarlo de corazón. hay tres portadas distintas, las de vinilo son de madera con el título serigrafiado directamente sobre ella, incluyen un libro de ocho páginas talladas y firmadas por Steven R. Smith, deliciosos grabados, cubierta de fieltro negro, limitada a 250 copias, con olor a madera fresca. el colmo del romanticismo..y del frikismo musical. hermoso de principio a fin, por dentro y por fuera. y como no podía ser de otra forma, firme candidato a disco del año ^_^

un aperitivo...heave the gambrel roof (mp3)

the child readers

the child readers

los discos que merece la pena escuchar dan siempre, desde la primera nota, la sensación de que estamos en otro planeta. me ocurre con The Child Readers, y en general con todos los discos de Jewelled Antler, sello de ensueño que sigo descubriendo día a día y por el que siento un cariño muy especial. pero lo más importante de todo es que The Child Readers están vivos. y que el espíritu de Jewelled Antler también sigue vivo a través de Soft Abuse (Flying Canyon, Ov, The Franciscan Hobbies, Hala Strana, Giant Skyflower Band, Wooden Wand,...). en primavera publicarán su nuevo disco, Music Heard Far Off. (!!)

"Toddling their way along implied paths in a quiet forest of sound, The Child Readers explore the wonder in the incidental nature of life around us with newborn ears.They leave sparse footprints: the soft twinkles and cracks of forest floors, the hums and rushes of wet night air, the chiming of small bells, distant buzzings, menacing phantasms of rumble and the hopeful rising breath of guitars strumming.Thin voices emerge as wisps of grass, struggling out uncertain but insistent form through the deeply romantic folds of their sonic topography.

The Child Readers hear with innocence and whisper their secret songs to us with baited breath."

Fortune (Incl. A Hated Art) (mp3 de Music Heard Far Off)

death's death (mp3 de Memory and Fantasy)

myspace

steven r. smith

steven r. smith - the anchorite (important, vinyl 2006)

empieza a sonar Stars heaped up like Rain y entramos de lleno en el mundo de Steven R. Smith: violines, hurdy gurdy, psaltery, celos, xilófonos, bombard, ney, bouzouki, glockenspiel, órgano, percusiones, címbalos, shaker, campanillas noah, panderetas, kaen, melodica, guitarra eléctrica que parece acústica, mandolina, tapes... muchos años explorando y haciendo música vibrante, como Steven R. Smith, como Thuja o como Hala Strana. y de repente llega ese disco que se convierte probablemente en su disco más bonito, el más parecido a Kohl, auténtica preciosidad que hasta ayer consideraba su obra cumbre. de hecho ahora mismo no existe nada más delicado y misterioso que Ampulla, himno de ambiente medieval salpicado de drones y del suave tintineo de un cuenco tibetano que rebota en las paredes del monasterio. tres minutos escasos de un irreconocible instrumento de cuerda que parece tocado por un monje benedictino y que asciende a la categoría de experiencia casi religiosa. y al final sólo puedes aplaudir, hipnotizada. no sobra ni una nota, ni un sólo detalle. una joya en vinilo, limitada a quinientas copias, hecha a mano, firmada y numerada por el propio Steven R. Smith en la serie Arts & Crafts de Important Records. mi único deseo es que mañana me siga pareciendo tan mágico como esta noche

ov

ov - the moon is down (jewelled antler, cdr reissued 2006)

no hay mucha información de The Moon is down, y las dos únicas referencias creo que dicen cosas distintas. en Aquarius hablan de un acontecimiento monumental, el regreso de Jewelled Antler después de un largo paréntesis, tras la publicación en el 2005 de The Quartz Pond de Of. sin embargo en Soft Abuse creo entender que ésta es una reedición de su debut para Jewelled Antler, y que en otoño se publicará en el propio Soft Abuse su segundo disco: 'Noctilucent Valleys'. no sé qué es exactamente...sí sé que The Moon is Down es otro disco escalofriante, el debut de una pareja de recién casados que ya conocíamos de otros proyectos: Loren Chasse (Thuja, Blithe Sons, Child Readers, Coelacanth, Of...) y Christine Boepple (Whysp, Skygreen Leopards, Kyrgyz...). todo transcurre y concuerda con lógica, ese sonido clásico y reconocible de todos los grupos que Jewelled Antler ha ido publicando a lo largo de estos años... paisajes a flor de piel donde el folk es tratado con elegancia, combinando campanillas y guitarras acústicas con flautas y gongs, percusiones y cuencos tibetanos con cánticos que flotan sobre un fondo de drones y reverberaciones. música apacible y ensoñadora cuyo mayor reclamo es 'Devoted Realms', romántico hasta la muerte, que surge en pleno viaje de novios, el que les lleva a pasear por calles alemanas. 'caminan tranquilos, de la mano, de repente empiezan a sonar las campanas de la iglesia, aquí y allá, parecen venir de muchas direcciones, una gloriosa cacofonía, un pequeño interludio que divide una canción en ciernes, el murmullo de un órgano melancólico, que se aleja con rapidez hacia el final del disco para dar paso al epílogo, de nuevo las campanas'. Inolvidable...y no necesita de muchos decibelios para mostrar todas sus cartas, tal vez por eso incluso la sigilosa Michiguitan State parece sentirse atraída por la cristalina The Chambers of The Hand. quiero creer que Jewelled Antler sigue en activo...

más: 'The first two tracks are lengthy abstract soundscapes of bells and chimes and gongs and percussion. The amazing thing is that the final result doesn't necessarily sound all that percussive, instead Chasse and Boepple manage to smooth the sounds into a dreamy billowy fog, with tinkling bells, reverberating chimes, it's like floating through a slowed down sculpture garden, huge pieces of metal slowly swinging, and gently rubbing up against each other, sending soft ringing tones to float softly across the gauzy landscape like dry leaves on a summer breeze, underpinned by slow low end pulses, smears of glistening shimmer and a constellation of glimmering tinkles. There are lilting guitars too, but plucked and strummed so sparely, they almost just sound like more chimes.The record shifts gears after that, drifting from one dreamlike sound to another, a rich and exotic tribal landscape, huge swells of crystalline fuzz beneath fluttering flute melodies, primitive shakers and hand drums, and what sounds like forest sounds, drifting in and out of the mix, a world of alien lullabies, super distorted melodies over warm warbling woodwinds and textural percussion that sounds more like the crinkle of plastic, a gentle stream of fuzzy organ, buzzing harmonica, plink plonk guitar melody, pocket full of coins jangle, all bathed in a soft focus shimmer and some Eno-esque melodic ambience constructed from a dense assemblage of notes and tones, rich and oversaturated.

Packaged in a beautiful hand printed sleeve, a strange angular crystalscape on the front, a mysterious symbol on the back, each sleeve with a different color ink and different colored paper. Includes an insert with liner notes and an image of some mysterious multi horned instrument on the other. As with most things like this, super limited!!!'

"The Chambers Of The Hand"

"Spiritual Magnetism"

"Devoted Realms"

hala strana

hala strana - white sleep (soft abuse, 2006)

"Hala Strana is a summation of Steven R. Smith's interest in the traditional folk musics of Central and Eastern Europe. Incorporating the melodies and scales of village music from Croatia, Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Poland, Smith pushes his music into new territories, using layered instruments like gourd guitar, clay flowerpots, glockenspiel, violin, and others."

"White Sleep delivers the first new Hala Strana recordings since These Villages. The three breathtaking new compositions rival the best Hala Strana offerings to date, and include a powerful cover version of 'Dream Forever' by Dog Faced Hermans. His compositions—combining 4/8-track recordings of live instruments with minidisk and boombox overdubs—conjure a dream symphony that defies easy categorization on the 7” lathe, White Sleep. Beset with wheezing ambient tones and degraded tape noise, these pieces sound positively ancient and fall somewhere between Eastern European traditional folk, the homemade primitive works of Harry Partch and the early noise drone of  Velvet Underground. An edition of 60 copies, with handmade sleeves."

entrevista a Steven R. Smith en Kid Shirt y una lista de sus discos favoritos en Dusted. dentro de poco debería salir su nuevo disco en Music Fellowship: "Heave the Gambrel Roof"