autumn, again

va ~ autumn, again (calm in trees, septiembre 2014)

01 autumn again ~ pulse emitter | equinox (constellation tatsu, 2014)
02 balcony on the outer space ~ portopia '81 | stardust memory (field hymns, 2014)
03 star hive module ~ opaline | shade virtual (habitat tapes, 2014)
04 golden haze ~ x.y.r. | el dorado (coming soon...)
05 el devenir de las piedras, side a ~ claudio caldini (sonm archive, 1989)
06 breet's long winter's leap ~ loren chasse | unreleased (2014)
07 mayapple's dream ~ kane pour | unreleased (2014)
08 celestial ~ an bene & pierre lambow | sustained space (trance port tapes, 1983)
09 lenox avenue blues ~ fats waller | 1926-1927: organ and piano solos (classic, 1992)
10 willow weep for me ~ sun ra | church organ, 1948 (unknown label, 2014)
11 wind voice/lost lake ~ cloaks | visible (sun ark, 2014)
12 7th vision ~ günter schlienz | tour tape (sicsic, 2014)
13 untitled ~ euglossine | floridian abstract (housecraft, 2012)
14 garden music #10 ~ inner travels | garden music (rainbow pyramid. 2014)
15 waves ~ miaux | dive (ultra eczema, 2014)
16 to dance with you ~ enno velthuys | different places (exart, 1997)
17 parade I ~ pierre palla | tuschinsky, orgel (odeon/decca, 1948)
18 super cosmic ~ portopia '81 | stardust memory (field hymns, 2014)
19 feeling II ~ sun an | ice cream memory card (buena vista, 2014)
20 in search of a dream ~ bobby brown | live (destiny, 1978)
21 after night, before sunrise ~ oliwa | oceanic triangulation (inner islands, 2014)
22 karabinka ~ eitetsu hayashi | messenger of the wind (victor, 1983)
23 cohabitation ~ strange mountain  | inhibitions (geology, 2014)
24 providence ~ cliffsides | headspace (tranquility tapes, 2014)
25 night sounds, side a ~ opaline | night sounds vol. I (self-released, 2014)

26 eighties gleam ~ demonstration synthesis | ds10 (rainbow pyramid, 2014)
27 awake, awake, awake ~ bus gas | snake hymns (spring break tapes!, 2014)
28 in waves ~ former selves | in waves (harmonic articulation, 2014)
29 goodbye dreams... ~ demonstration synthesis | ds6 (5cm recordings, 2014)
30 archipelago ~ madalyn merkey | valley girl (new images, 2014)
31 untitled ~ inspired school of astral music | 10:10 opening... (sonic meditations, 2014)
32 meridiano ~ oliwa | selva primaria (rainbow pyramid, 2014)
33 palm café ~ c. young | daily's ep 10" (jj funhouse, 2014)
34 première mosrel ~ bwengo | tasty morsels, vol. 1 (tasty morsels, 2013)
35 writer ~ oootini | sample/hold (further, 2014)
36 native shores ~ edward artemiev | moods (melodia, 1983)
37 auto pedals ~ banal beauty | sandmutopia (cavelife, 2011)
38 live ~ sarah davachi | live at lucky's comics (music waste, 2014)
39 vie dans les profondeurs ~ michel redolfi | nausicaá...(cirm, 1991)
40 nº 7 'aquarium' andantino ~ eugene ormandy | carnival of the animals (sony classical, 1996)
41 group motion perfomance ~ charles cohen | group motion (morphine, 2013)
42 matching mirrors-morgiana's prowl ~ luboš fišer | morgiana (finders keepers, 2013)
43 miroitements ~ costin miereanu | fata morgana (poly-art international, 1982)
44 something nice for my dog ~ mark isham | vapor drawings (windham hill, 1983)
45 ah nice bir ~ hakan polat | neyzen (yavuzburcplak, 2011)
46 creek ~ hiroshi yoshimura | green (sona gaia productions, 1986)
47 swim twice ~ geotic | morning shore (eon isle) (self-released, 2014)
48 main theme/red square ~ matti bye | the hundred-year-old man who climbed... (2014)
49 rotation ~ robert turman | chapter eleven (hanson, 2010)
50 lúa ~ árbore | lúa (self-released, 2014) 

...y aquí está el recopi de otoño, coincidiendo con el equinoccio, y con octubre a la vuelta de la esquina. snif. la lista de discos pendientes sigue aumentando y aumentando, y eso que yo hago esfuerzos verdaderos por disminuirla. con tanta música bonita desbordante es imposible resumir y ser concisa, y al final como siempre me salen estos recopis eternos. en 'autumn, again' hay descubrimientos que me hacía mucha ilusión compartir como 'el devenir de las piedras' de Claudio Caldini, una cinta de cassette de 1989 (hyades arts, ñam ñam) que tanto me recuerda a Bill Doob y a todo lo relacionado con Inspired School of Astral Music. ha sido imposible encontrarla pero, como el que busca siempre halla, al final he aquí un trocito de la cara a. lo mismo que 'miroitements' de Costin Miereanu, otra rareza deliciosa de 1981. hay una canción de árbore para la que no tengo palabras, se llama 'lúa' y son field recordings en estado puro, pajaritos, el océano atlántico y ese toque de guitarra tan suyo que reconocería a mil millones de kilómetros de distancia. amor eterno a 'celestial' de An Bene & Pierre Lambow, un tesoro de 1983 que también me recuerda a Celestrial Stairway (la obsesión va en aumento...). y siempre, siempre, nuevas y emocionantes canciones de Günter Schlienz, x.y.r. (preciosísimo adelanto de 'el dorado' que Vladimir quiso compartir con nosotros), Former Selves, Miaux y muy especialmente 'balcony on the outer space' de Portopia '81, la canción más bonita del mundo. gracias como siempre a las recomendaciones aisladas, a los mixtapes (m.m. peres se ha ganado el cielo por este pequeño homenaje a la música de órgano de los años treinta)... y a Toys and Techniques, uno de esos blogs que no quisiera que desapareciera nunca. la guinda: en pocos días subiremos un compilado sólo de chicas, mano a mano con la caracola (me pía un pajarito que la blogosfera está triste sin luzzzalig...). ¡chin chin!

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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

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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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)

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"