DAIS068 Tor Lundvall – ‘The Park’ LP
In 2012, ambient composer Tor Lundvall and Dais Records presented his second instrumental masterpiece entitled The Shipyard (2006’s Empty City being the first). After its release and universal praise, Lundvall had confided that there was a third instrumental album nearing completion entitled The Park. Fostering his natural habitat of the wooded landscapes of Eastern Long Island, Lundvall again set about capturing his portrait studies and composing a lurid and abstract ambient soundtrack to accompany his source of inspiration. In Tor’s own words: “I first thought about making an album about a quiet park during a morning walk back in the frigid February of 2011. Song titles started popping into my head long before any music was recorded. ‘Symbols on Pavement’ was the first title that came to me, but ended up being the last piece recorded. Like most of my previous albums “The Park” follows a timeline, in this case, beginning on an early spring morning and ending on a late summer evening. The track sequence also maps out the shifting light and weather patterns during the course of a day. For the first time in years, I’ve incorporated field recordings into the music, other than the sounds recorded from outside my studio window. I carried my portable recorder with me during bike rides and walks through my favorite parks, recording birds, insects, lawnmowers, wood chippers, field games, and other less definable sounds. Parks have always been my sanctuaries and my greatest sources of inspiration since childhood. Although this album is not focused on one park in particular, the music resonates strongly with memories of my favorite childhood park, The James A. McFaul Environmental Center in Wyckoff, New Jersey. The McFaul Center is a place of quiet beauty, but it is also filled with shadows and secrets, especially deep within the Nature Trail. The final track, ‘Closes At Dusk’, is an homage to the siren which shrieked every evening from behind the towering pines.” Limited to 300 vinyl editions with artwork by Tor Lundvall.
DAIS074 Sightings – ‘Amusers and Puzzlers’ LP
After the release of their well-received ninth studio album, Terribly Well, and their successful month long European tour in 2013, Sightings did the unexpected and quietly disbanded without notice or explanation. More than 15 years in the trenches and making a mess throughout New York City, the band made more of a polarizing impact to formalized underground music that most of their peers. Sightings would have been a national treasure if the whole country was laid to waste in Armageddon. During the sessions that birthed Terribly Well, a complimentary album was recorded in tandem which, while not intended to be their final statement, produced the jaded epilogue from the mouth of experimental rock’s most lasting monolith. Amusers and Puzzlers is the schizophrenic culmination of their brand of damaged rock. Isolated noise patterns shifted from Mark Morgan’s unorthodox guitar patterns sewn up from his nervous, scattered vocal phrasing. Richard Hoffman’s stampede-like momentum on bass slammed against Jon Lockie’s drum triggers made the past couple decades crash into itself. The final LP from Sightings, limited to a single pressing of 500 copies with cover art/design by Bill Nace (Body/Head).