LUCIERNAGA – ‘Sleeping/Wandering’ 7″
“Sleeping/Wandering” is Luciernaga’s vinyl debut. This limited edition 7″ EP contains extended and alternate versions of the tracks “Sleeping Green-Eyed Girl”, from the recent “To The Centre…” limited edition cassette released by UK label Invisible City and “Wandering June”, from the self-released and now sold out “Tile II” limited edition cassette. The alternate version of “Sleeping Green-Eyed Girl” showcases Luciernaga’s penchant for constructing beautifully expansive work from a core of shimmering drones and occasionally dissonant passages. Gorgeous music stretches out above a hypnotic loop as he carefully layers delicate, crystalline feedback-like sounds atop. The result is a song that glistens away in a beautiful slumber befitting its dream-like title. On the flip side’s extended “Wandering June”, Luciernaga again builds from a foundation of gentle, but not necessarily delicate loops of sound, to which he adds a heavier, bowed string like drones and hints of feedback. This almost meditative loop evolves with time, and with him processing the sound at times into what could be a jaunty whistle, there is a whimsical subtext to his overall serious composition. Luciernaga is the experimental ambient music project of Chilean-Brazilian by way of Brooklyn artist Joao Da Silva. A former hardcore punk front man, guitar player, and zine editor who took an active role in Santiago, Chile’s hardcore-punk scene during the early 90’s (there’s even a full-length documentary about it!). Joao turned to “droning guitar electronics that can vacillate significantly between dark terrors and bright, shimmering expanses of sound” (Brainwashed.com) after moving to NYC in 2008. He has since released a series of limited edition cassettes and CD-R’s on various labels in the U.S. and abroad. Luciernaga’s music was recently featured in “Circle In The Rock” a short-film directed by Ellis Bahl and starring Brandon Sexton III. The 7″ comes in a hand-numbered edition of 100 copies on transparent vinyl with letter-pressed covers. There are four different variants of the album cover using a different photograph. Includes free mp3 download of Sleeping/Wandering 7″ EP + extras.
DAVID FIRST – ‘Same Animal, Different Cages Vol. 1: Études for Acoustic Guitar’ LP
Fabrica Records is very excited to announce that we are working with American composer and improviser David First on a series of releases under the name “Same Animal, Different Cages”. The first album in the series, Volume 1: Études for Acoustic Guitar, is now available for pre-order. On Études for Acoustic Guitar, First twists and bends notes from his steel-string acoustic guitar, an instrument traditionally associated with American folk, country and blues music. And in fact, those genres are central to First’s explorations here, constituting portions of a palette that also encompasses jazz and Indian classical music. The result is a series of stylistic hybrids in which an expansive tonality is propelled with rhythmic authority. The effect on the listener is similar to that of tape manipulation, or to the challenges posed to the inner ear by Phil Niblock’s shifting dissonances. It’s almost as if the room itself speeds up and slows down as First performs in it, anchoring himself in three humble dimensions and letting time do what it will. The “Same Animal, Different Cages” series serves as the latest chapter in the oeuvre of a musician whose defining quality is arguably his curiosity. David First asks the right questions, and there are no wrong answers. Limited Edition of 300 w/download card. 100 on Transparent Green Vinyl. 200 on black vinyl.
ROBERT TURMAN & AARON DILLOWAY – ‘Blizzard’ 2LP
Recorded in the midst of an actual extreme winter weather event, Blizzard conjures the early synthesizer experiments of Popol Vuh and Tangerine Dream combined with the gritty reel-to-reel tape manipulations long employed by both Aaron Dilloway (Hanson Records / ex-Wolf Eyes) and Robert Turman (founding member of the pioneering industrial outfit NON and a celebrated solo artist in his own right). As the story goes, Blizzard was recorded in January 2009 during an Ohio snowstorm which hit on the very day that Dilloway was preparing for a move to Michigan. Alone, his wife and child already settling into the new place, and stranded in a cold and empty house, he was welcomed into Turman’s home. They decided to make the best of the occasion and hunkered down for a few days of late-night recording. Crawling synth drones and looped effects keep things bleak throughout. The wind gusts outside are strangely regular. Snow scratches at the windows more rhythmically than seems natural. Are those woodwinds or animal calls? Are the streetlights obscured by blown branches, or are they slowly strobing? Suddenly a normal house in a common Midwestern blizzard feels like a house stalked by a sentient storm, bearing down for a final freeze. Throw another log on the fire and make yourself comfortable for the last time. Limited Edition of 500. 150 on Transparent Blue Vinyl. 350 on black vinyl. Mastered for vinyl by Timothy Stollenwerk of Stereophonic Mastering.