Category: Music

The clock is slowing and time is held like a breath as daylight falls from the horizon. Waking hours spin to a slow finale through a subconscious haze flecked with deep autumnal reds and quiet yellows. Memories gradually transform into moonlit ripples on a lake until the shadows emerge and slither across the surface of the water. I shift my body weight to the other side of where I lay.

A distant radio hisses like wind through dead grasses as I move past crisp woodland branches that snap and crack as I seek a place of shelter. Hundreds of unseen eyes, hidden behind tree trunks and bracken, curiously trace my movement. I crouch down to rest as a hare approaches and briefly stops to tilt her head to make eye contact with me. I hold my breath and my feet and fingers sink into the decaying soil. My balance shifts and my tired eyelids open for a moment.

Turning my head I see an opening close by partially masked by shadows. I count silently to myself and then cautiously venture out into this unknown open space. Here the snow-covered ground rises above me in ascending steps arcing through the plains. As my breath slows I follow the faint constellations of star clusters that hang buoyantly above me. I am softly breathing and almost asleep, unsure of where I am.

Cresting the hill the sound of running water carries me back into the trees once more. I’m enticed by glistening droplets of near-frozen dew on the fallen logs that conceal the singing insects residing on the woodland floor. I pull tightly on my bedclothes as warm harmonic tones ease across my frost-kissed ears until broken twigs underfoot break my state of slumber. Back now, my pillow is familiar and warm.

The tiny fraction of time between waking and sleep, with no distinct perception of reality is a moment to be held and absorbed for as long as possible. It is the ontologically fleeting moment of the present, as our heavy eyelids close and our pulse slows, that is the inspiration inside the music of Faint, the new album on 12k by Taylor Deupree.

EDITIONS:
Faint is being released in two different editions. The Deluxe Edition comes in a boxed set containing 12 photographs Deupree took with a plastic, hand-built 35mm camera, the Faint CD and a bonus CD containing “Thaw (Reprise),” an extended 38-minute version of “Thaw” which will only be available on this CD (not sold digitally). The Standard Edition comes packaged in 12k’s new uncoated board jacket design in an edition of 1000 with the main, 51-minute, Faint album.

The clock is slowing and time is held like a breath as daylight falls from the horizon. Waking hours spin to a slow finale through a subconscious haze flecked with deep autumnal reds and quiet yellows. Memories gradually transform into moonlit ripples on a lake until the shadows emerge and slither across the surface of the water. I shift my body weight to the other side of where I lay.

A distant radio hisses like wind through dead grasses as I move past crisp woodland branches that snap and crack as I seek a place of shelter. Hundreds of unseen eyes, hidden behind tree trunks and bracken, curiously trace my movement. I crouch down to rest as a hare approaches and briefly stops to tilt her head to make eye contact with me. I hold my breath and my feet and fingers sink into the decaying soil. My balance shifts and my tired eyelids open for a moment.

Turning my head I see an opening close by partially masked by shadows. I count silently to myself and then cautiously venture out into this unknown open space. Here the snow-covered ground rises above me in ascending steps arcing through the plains. As my breath slows I follow the faint constellations of star clusters that hang buoyantly above me. I am softly breathing and almost asleep, unsure of where I am.

Cresting the hill the sound of running water carries me back into the trees once more. I’m enticed by glistening droplets of near-frozen dew on the fallen logs that conceal the singing insects residing on the woodland floor. I pull tightly on my bedclothes as warm harmonic tones ease across my frost-kissed ears until broken twigs underfoot break my state of slumber. Back now, my pillow is familiar and warm.

The tiny fraction of time between waking and sleep, with no distinct perception of reality is a moment to be held and absorbed for as long as possible. It is the ontologically fleeting moment of the present, as our heavy eyelids close and our pulse slows, that is the inspiration inside the music of Faint, the new album on 12k by Taylor Deupree.

EDITIONS:
Faint is being released in two different editions. The Deluxe Edition comes in a boxed set containing 12 photographs Deupree took with a plastic, hand-built 35mm camera, the Faint CD and a bonus CD containing “Thaw (Reprise),” an extended 38-minute version of “Thaw” which will only be available on this CD (not sold digitally). The Standard Edition comes packaged in 12k’s new uncoated board jacket design in an edition of 1000 with the main, 51-minute, Faint album.

In September, 2011, 12k released the boxed set by Taylor Deupree and Marcus Fischer titled In A Place of Such Graceful Shapes containing a CD, a booklet of photographs and a clear-vinyl 7”— all carefully designed and integrated. All 500 copies of this box sold out by the beginning of 2012. As a special release to be debuted at the duo’s live performance at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre in Austin, Texas on April 15th, the artists have utilized a limited pressing of unlabeled white-vinyl 7”s and made a new, equally beautiful, release for this project about landscape, texture, and sound.

In A Place of Such Graceful Shapes (Edition) comes packaged in heavyweight folded package housing the white 7” and a download coupon for the full-length project that existed on the original CD. Limited to only 250 copies this is a beautiful object for the first-time listener or for the collector fortunate enough to have a copy of the original box.

[ EXCERPT FROM THE ORIGINAL PRESS RELEASE FOR IN A PLACE OF SUCH GRACEFUL SHAPES]

In the fading days of autumn in 2010, Taylor Deupree and Marcus Fischer, having become acquainted only earlier that year, set out on the sort of cross-country collaboration typically executed via technology and the web. However, having made a few rough sketches, they became disenchanted by the Internet and the machines between them, and quickly realized that the only way forward was via a plane ticket. Marcus left Portland for New York in February of 2011. The two met face-to-face for the first time, and without any hesitation embarked on 4 days of creating music and photographing the bitter cold and deep snow that covered the state.

Buried in a sea of guitar pedals, looping boxes, analog synths, tape recorders, found objects and percussion instruments, Deupree and Fischer settled into the 12k studio and began crafting long passages of music, with no editing, into what would become the single composition on the CD. The creative energy didn’t stop in the studio, however, as the frozen bay and snow-covered hills along the Hudson River became the visual backdrop that brought the project to completion. Intended for quiet listening.

[REVIEW, FLUID RADIO, UK]:
“Over the course of nearly 50 minutes, incidental micro-loops, bell-like sounds, worn-out guitars swells, decayed chord progressions, fragile melodic fragments and warm droning textures are carefully assembled, held suspended for a few seconds and immediately dissolved, only leaving evanescent traces of their past presence to create a very intimate and ephemeral landscape whose boundaries are uncertain and colours always changing. The apparent yet deceptive stasis of the piece create a strong sense of place, akin to a spectral meadow at dawn or an hidden-away sunlit pond, whose aquatic inhabitants are still asleep. More than an elusive echo garden, it’s a sanctuary that Fischer and Deupree patiently create. The short two accompanying tracks ‘Blanketing’ and ‘Cloudline’, pressed on a separate 7” vinyl, sound like miniature versions of that intimate place, as if recalled from hazy memories and condensed into a glistening glass ball – two numbers of exquisite and diminutive beauty that are the perfect companion to the nocturnal sleeplessness.”

There‘s not a lot of artists who had such an important influence on todays ambient music like the outstanding piano player and composer Harold Budd. Albums like his classical „Pavilion of Dreams“ or his cooperations with Brian Eno like „The Pearl“ are well known to many electronic and Ambient musicians and listeners of the last decades. Especially the two fellow musicians Martin Juhls (aka Marsen Jules) and Rafael Anton Irisarri (aka The Sight Below) were often talking about the influence that Budd‘s music had on them and how much respect and admiration they had for him and his work. Out of this came the idea of paying respect to Budd in some way, to give something back to him. „Lost in the Humming Air“ is the result of this thought in form of a musical tribute and it‘s a big honor to release this in the 50th year of Mr. Budd‘s career as a composer. We invited some of our favorite artists to contribute a song that, in some way, resembles the music of Harold Budd or channeles the influence he had on them as musicians. We are very glad that „Lost in the Humming Air“ has turned out to be a special selection of thirteen modern Ambient pieces, with illustrous contributors such as Mokira, Taylor Deupree, Deaf Center, Christopher Willits, Biosphere, Porn Sword Tobacco and Bvdub. While all of the tracks offer a unique perspective on how the now classical sounds of Harold’s music have been an influence in one way or the other, they still manage to maintain a sound that is closely connected to the individual musician. Deaf Center, known for their highly acclaimed albums on labels such as Miasmah and Type, contributed the dark and moody “Plateau”, which was originally the opening track of a rare live performance of the duo in 2009. Our longtime friend and highly respected fellow musician John Xela made an exception of not participating in compilation projects anymore with his sublime home listening piece “The Only Rose”, which resembles his earlier work for labels such as Neo Ouija and City Centre Offices. For the first time ever, Brock van Wey, who has been one of our favorite producers for quite some time now, has collaborated with his mother Criss Van Wey, who played the piano for their heartbreaking elegy “My Father, My Friend”. We hope that, by releasing this record, we can give something back to Harold and maybe also help a younger generation of Ambient afficionados to discover the beauty of his timeless music. If you want to know more about how the individual artists feel about Harold Budd and their contributions to this project, feel free to read the liner notes we compiled on the next page.

All artists who contributed in this release donated their tracks. The profit of this CD will go to a charity project chosen by Harold Budd.

Focux is a collection of recordings by Taylor Deupree originally released around 2001 as a series of limited edition 12″s on the now-defunct Dutch label Audio.NL including 2 unreleased materials from those times.

Over the last decade, Deupree, who founded the 12k label in 1997, has become one of the leading figures in modern electro-acoustic ambient music, but Focux comes from a time when he was balancing between two worlds: one of ambient music and one of minimalist techno.

Focux shows another side of Deupree’s work that used to prevail throughout the early and mid 1990’s where he took the basic 4/4 techno beat and stripped it down to its most basic of elements and then recombined it with microscopic scrapes and blips forming often off-kilter side beats that looped along at a variety of time signatures, playing off of the 4/4 bass drum creating ever-evolving combinations of loops and interactions.

While Focux seems so far removed from what Deupree has become most known for it doesn’t take much to see the connections between this and his more recent output for his 12k imprint. There is a clear sense of space and a fascination for details crafted in minimalist shell. Loops and repetitions are as present as always and even one of his most important themes ― imperfection ― finds its way into the stark, club-inflected work that is Focux.

It is incredible to find the tracks hereunder still sounding fresh even after a decade and how addictive they are.