a r t i s t : Wes Willenbring
t i t l e : Somewhere Someone Else
d a t e : 2007
l a b e l : Hidden Shoal
s o u r c e : CDR
g e n r e : Ambient
r l s. d a t e : Sep/2007
t r a c k s : 10
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 60,6 MB
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Another dreamy slab of sonic loveliness from Australian label
Hidden Shoal (along with the Sankt Otten reviewed elsewhere on
this list). We're so psyched to finally have copies of this to
list, but it wasn't as simple as just ordering 'em, it took a
lot of doing to get these into AQ (or to get them to
physically exist at all), what are we talking about? Just read
on...
So this has actually happened to us a few times, which either
speaks to our naivete, or as we prefer to think a dogged
belief in the record album as object, to be held, listened to
and loved, and an inability to understand any thoughts to the
contrary. Australia's Hidden Shoal Records got in touch with
us and was hoping we would check out some of their bands, we
did, and got all excited about carrying them at AQ. Until,
after we emailed and tried to order some, we were regretfully
informed that Hidden Shoal was in fact a digital only label,
no lps, no cds, no cassettes, just MP3's. Too bad we thought,
as far as we were concerned, though of course we know there
are those perfectly happy to download some MP3's. But over the
course of many months, and lots of emails back and forth, the
label admitted to being interested in actually pressing up
cds. We of course encouraged them, because we wanted all our
customers to be able to buy and hear this music, but also,
because, there's something about the object, the cd or the lp
or the 7", the liner notes, looking through the booklet while
listening to the music, the feel, even the smell. And sure, it
IS all about the music, but that other stuff is part of it
too, no matter how much iTunes wants us to think otherwise.
Obviously most of you don't need to be told that, otherwise
you'd probably not be reading this.
Well, the upshot is, two of our favorite recordings on Hidden
Shoal, are now finally available on cd, well, cd-r actually.
But they are professionally pressed, with full color artwork,
printed artwork on the disc, and heck, we'll take cd-r's over
MP3s any day. And lots of you seem to prefer cd-r's anyway...
It's strange that we went through all that, and convinced a
label in a far away land, to press cds, so we could finally
get copies of a cd by a performer who lives RIGHT DOWN THE
STREET from aQuarius, but that's precisely what happened. This
disc, and the other Hidden Shoal release by German outfit
Sankt Otten, reviewed elsewhere on the list, were hand
delivered, by our neighbor, Mr. Willenbring himself. But so
what if it wasn't the most direct route, all that work was
well worth it.
Willenbring employs a piano and a guitar, but for the most
part you'd never know it, as most of the tracks here are huge
slow moving sheets of pure sound, blurred and abstract. Even
the ones that do start with bits of piano, or offer up bits of
strum and twang, gradually become more and more washed out,
gorgeous wet windshield smears, sparkling with muted colors,
glistening and glimmering, it's the music of light reflecting
off wet pavement, the sound of trees heavy with snow and ice,
of home movies of long car trips, of out of focus landscapes
from the past. Melodies that creep and drift, gradually
growing heavier and heavier, the clouds gathering, until it's
a slow drive through thick fog, shapes and sounds barely
visible. But it's those glimpses of piano, or fragments of
guitar that ground the music on Somewhere Someone Else, keep
it from being "dronemusic", imbue it with warmth, emotion,
hidden melody, dark secrets, the songs may end up adrift on a
glimmering black sea, but they began on the shore, within site
of home and family, gradually moving farther and farther away,
the familiar fading away, slipping slowly into the unknown.
Absolutely gorgeous. Dreamy dark meandering melancholia for
fans of Stars Of The Lid, Eluvium, Dead Texan, Tim Hecker,
Godspeed and other purveyors of darkly dramatic, abstract
moody minimalism...
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01-Correspondence [03:58]
02-Sometimes [05:22]
03-Lost Illusions [04:20]
04-In A Quiet Dark Room [02:24]
05-Resuscitate [03:54]
06-Reverie [04:11]
07-As You Fade Away [04:30]
08-Aperture [03:02]
09-Small Reminders [04:03]
10-While My Lungs Fill with Water [04:20]
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40:04 min