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."

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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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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

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

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

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)

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blithe sons

the blithe sons ~ the arm of the starfish (family vineyard 2004)

rescato del baúl de los recuerdos la esponjosa estrella de mar de The Blithe Sons (Loren Chasse de Coelacanth, Of, Thuja y Child Readers, y Glenn Donaldson de Skygreen Leopards, the Birdtree, y Thuja). Espuma, medusas, anémonas de sol...no existe un disco que exprese con tanta precisión el significado de 'clima', perfecto para escuchar justo antes de dormir y con las luces apagadas.

Sun Anemone & Foam