Black Eagle Child – ‘Lobelia’
In March 2011, Lobelia was released on CD by Australian label Preservation. Since its release, the album has received high marks in the critical circles and a generally positive reception from listeners of all dispositions. First, I want to thank everyone who has listened to, purchased, or otherwise supported this album so far. Your response has been hugely appreciated and I hope the time and attention you invested in this record has offered you a positive return. To realize Lobelia to an even greater (and, I think, appropriate) degree, a vinyl edition is essential. This new edition will be a joint release under the Preservation and Avant Archive labels. The original audio, mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, will be transferred to vinyl and produced in a quantity of 500. This project will cover the cost of the following:
- Two-step plating for two disks (A/B, C/D) at Aardvark Mastering.
- 1000 records (500 sets) pressed at Bill Smith Custom Made Records.
- 500 full-color, tip-on gatefold jackets, printed at Stoughton Printing.
- 1000 poly-lined inner sleeves from Bags Unlimited.
- 500 resealable polypropylene sleeves from Bags Unlimited.
I hope that those of you who have enjoyed Lobelia thus far in its digital formats will be just as excited to get your hands on a proper vinyl edition!
Original Press Release from Preservation: The Preservation label presents Lobelia, the debut full-length album from Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s Black Eagle Child. Black Eagle Child is the guise for guitarist Michael Jantz. Jantz has previously released an expansive body of work, sprawling across some of the most notable underground labels of the current day, including Stunned, Housecraft and Digitialis. His solo recordings work a realm of exploratory zones for guitar that touch on the discordant, psychedelic and pastoral, while also deploying varied percussion and field recordings for texture and rhythm. That journey continues with Lobelia, though in its expansive scope it’s played for pure songcraft and resonant beauty. Lobelia can take a breezy pace but is deep with feeling throughout. Glistening pieces such as “Paper Delivery” unravel with an unashamedly wistful air, warmly redolent of the day’s wake, while others such as “Goodbye House” cast starrier atmospheres and a more mysterious kind of grace in their way. It’s the perfect combination for a work that reflects on Jantz’s growing up in the rural idylls surrounding Lake Michigan. The album’s title comes from the name of a native flower Jantz’s mother would use as a cure-all remedy when he was younger. Coming full circle now, Jantz has recently seen the birth of his own, child, a daughter. It’s her cooing on “I Forgot” that Jantz uses as another texture in weaving together a meditative portrait of family and the environs that can make it at once both unique and universal. Rounded off by the rustic banjo of “Families Get Together”, these poignant, sometimes sepia-tinted pieces place a gentle eye on the future. Sweet and enigmatic, Lobelia finds a musical place befitting of such an ideal. It is as evocative as it is lovely.