artist : Aster
title : Some Things Seldom Heard Of
date : 2008
label : Corp! Corp!
genre : Pop
cat# : n/a
release date: 01.18.2008
street date : 01.22.2008
tracks : 11
bitrate : avg. 185kbps
size : 63,6 MB
source : CDDA
type : Album
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There are currents. Indisputable channels of energy that
constantly ebb and flow. Like the entangled arms of an
infinite host of octopi writhing and enmeshed together in
some salty roman orgy. But the beasts have no heads and there
is no common goal. Accidents happen.
Sometimes the currents bring strangers together, sometimes
they pry friends apart. Most of the time the riders simply
find themselves staring up at foreign stars, oblivious as to
what current it is that has them in its grasp. All a lost
sailor can do is consult his compass and his nautical maps,
his gods and his star charts.
Every musician in Texas who suckles with eyes fixed upon the
constellations at the sacred temple of the teet of the muse
knows that in order to consult the serpentress and pay homage
to their respective gods, a journey must be undertaken. And
so, like many before them, they set out on their Hajj seeking
enlightenment and the favor of the deities, all paths
converging at their Mecca: Austin. It was this depraved
pilgrimage full of trials and flagellations that served as
the current that brought the two halves of Aster together,
but under a different incarnation.
Act 1: Gutenberg plays Cupid
Some two thousand and one years after the death of a
demi-god, T. Husmann found himself perusing the musicians
wanted ad in a local paper. At that same time, Bryan Ellis
was playing guitar in a local musical entourage by the name
of Revel. That same band had set out on a search for a
keyboard player some two thousand and thirty four years after
a strange star had appeared and set fire to a desert
somewhere across an easterly body of water.
Through the magic of movable print and with the aid of
horseless carriages, T. Husmann and Bryan Ellis met face to
face at a Revel practice session in a shady, beat-down,
cramped, rented space littered with cigarette butts and
Peavey electronics. Subsequent practice sessions occurred,
parts were learned, shows were played. More practices
occurred, band members were frequently late or absent. Parts
that had been learned previously by certain members were
forgotten or botched due to lack of practice. Shows were
played. Bryan and T. felt something was lacking. The other
members had failed to properly commit either due to multiple
engagements or misguided intentions.
The sirens had jumped from the shore and were now seated in
the vessel right between T. and Bryan. They sat there neither
rowing nor holding fast to the rudder, but only mindlessly
singing their wretched songs. A minstrel with his heart
hell-bent upon replacing the sun will only succeed in being
memorialized as a bright streak of crimson impartially
imprinted upon cotton walls in dark acrid spaces. Knowing
this, and realizing that there were some in their midst who
were so inclined, T. and Bryan set out to streamline things.
So as not to have their humble ship dashed upon the rocks, T.
and Bryan packed their ears with wax and pushed the other
members of Revel into the cold waters to die or to swim.
Lashing themselves to the vessel, they dropped sail, made
fast the rudder, and shot past the treacherous coasts that
had been flanking their voyage.
Act 2: So Long, Brave Norseman
As the seas calmed T. and Bryan took a final look back to see
what they had escaped. The shoreline behind them was a
disaster scene strewn with pillars of salt and the bodies of
unfortunate sailors who failed to negotiate agreeable terms
with Neptune. Carrying on, the two rogues spotted a safe
inlet and pulled their ship up on the shore. Stepping on dry
land they shook the sea salt from their backs and left it
lying in piles upon the rocky beach. Together they erected an
altar upon the center of their ship, heaping bitumen and
kindling beneath the sacred tabletop. Setting the bow alight,
they laid RevelÆs carcass upon the altar, covered his eyes
with silver coins, and pushed him out to see.
Consulting their maps, the two decided to undertake a new
crusade together beyond charted boundaries. With no maps of
this foreign land, Bryan and T. Husmann combined their
navigational instruments and set forth on an expedition of
audial cartography. They gave their expedition the name
Aster, an homage to the stars and the gods who controlled
them. By day Bryan looked towards Helios, one end of his
compass buried deep in the sands of pop sensibility, the
other end anchored in his chest. Allowing the compass to act
as a divining rod, Bryan pulled the six steely reigns in the
direction indicated. By night Husmann took over, attaching
the bit to a wooden beast of burden with ivory teeth, all the
while looking to Luna and sending for answers from Delphi.
Luckily, neither man was a stranger to reigning in the wooden
horse and thus, when one man tired the reins were passed to
the other.
Throughout the menÆs journey, T. Husmann made inquiry to Thor
through the serpentress. Finally, unhinging her wicked toothy
grin, she screamed forth her answers in syllables of six.
Offerings were necessitated, and so offerings were made. The
two followers stoked the holy flames and piled carcasses in
their way. Wafting the scent of the victims to the heavens
they took to their knees, rent their garments, and pulled at
their hair. Finding the offerings pleasing, Thor climbed down
from the heavens sliding along the smoke filled umbilicus
that the flames had given rise to. As a reward for their
devoutness, the god left the men his mighty hammers for
Husmann to wield in battle.
Act 3: Prothoolius Transcribes a Record
As the furlongs traveled increased, and battles were fought
and won, the land that was once foreign to the two became
intimately known to them. The song that emerged from the
lashing of the six steely reigns had joined in harmony with
the epic cries of the ivory-toothed beast. This harmony,
compounded with the unstopping, pulsating beat of the two
gifted hammers, gave birth to the soul of the expedition.
Moved by these sounds, the two adventurers sought a way to
bring them to the masses, but there was an obstacle: It was
impossible to make the wooden beast, the steely ox, and
ThorÆs hammers sound at once. For by necessity, one man had
to be at the reigns of either beast in order to make it sing
forth its song. Too much strength was needed to pull the bit
and open the mouth of either animal for it to be possible to
both reign in the beast and simultaneously wield ThorÆs
hammers.
Seeking a solution to their problem, the two men decided to
bring in a scribe. After much searching and prayer to the
gods, they found their man: Prothoolius. Prothoolius was a
man widely known for his ability to transcribe any audible
sound into a replicable transcribed form. Prothoolius
demanded a heavy fee and various accessories and instruments
were required for the practice of his art, but in time the
two men, Aster, managed to pay his exorbitant fee and gather
the tools he needed for his divination. All things assembled,
Prothoolius sat and transcribed as Bryan and T. Husmann took
turns pulling at the bit of the ivory-toothed equus. Several
months of such activities ensued, and Prothoolius faithfully
transcribed every note.
After the desired songs of the beast had been transcribed by
Prothoolius into his strange numerical language of ones and
zeros, the two men locked him in a box and carried him with
them on their expedition. Seeking audiences with the various
peoples of the surrounding territories, they set up
performances in numerous senates and stadiums. As the
spectators watched and listened, Bryan pulled at the steely
reigns of his beast and sang out bittersweet melodies while
T. Husmann lit a fire under the box containing Prothoolius
forcing him to echo forth the transcribed bellowing of the
wooden equus. Husmann then joined in, grasping the pair of
gifted hammers and bringing down thunder from the heavens.
The combined sounds that poured out provided the listeners
with an audial map of Aster's journeys both together and
alone, as well as an in depth exploration of both their souls
while simultaneously delving into the collective subconscious
that unites mankind.
The people were well pleased with this spectacle, and so the
two published a record of their songs, Some Things Seldom
Heard Of, so that whomever so wished to hear them could do so
whenever they desired. The recording being completed and put
in the hands of the masses by means of Prothoolius
divination, the two endeavored to forge on and bring the
sounds of their expedition in person to the four corners of
the globe.
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01-run away from the suits 07:12
02-the great escape 03:49
03-in the benthos 04:05
04-attempting to multiply 03:35
05-silence and summer 01:31
06-solitary life 03:59
07-stop the parade 04:15
08-we won't remember 05:19
09-some things seldom heard of 04:27
10-vaudeville 03:28
11-theme song 04:44
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46:24 min