(OCIO 003 / PLACETAPES 003 CDR-EP)
March 2007
there was a series on locust records of processed field recordings which inspired the creation of this record. i also wanted to explore the nord modular i had recently gotten. looking back on it, the influence of mirror and their constituent parts along with nurse with wound is definitely there. since these songs were written i have discovered other artists this release may be in line with...monos, ora, organum. i think i have heard their kind of music described as environmental drone. i think that is a suitable brief description for this record as well. more drones on the way...
1. stobblecones
2. less than natural wash
3. barge crossing
shedding is connor bell. these are field recordings of a flooded mississippi river processed primarily through a nord modular synthesizer in the summers of 2004 and 2005.
for the processed versions please see
autumn records' "leaves series" leaf010
photographs by connor bell . layout by tim furnish
(OCIO 002 CDR-EP)
March 2007
ocio002 was begun with two ideas. first, roberto and i had all these fun little tracks that were never gonna be finished. the kind of shit that is crusted onto the interior of your brain...little random things. the second aspect was the thought that little snippets of 'songs' might be of interest to some weird person in advertising/marketing. with those thought in mind we invited a couple of friends to join us for a four way split called
SUNLESS: 1. intro 2. wandering bear 3. early adoption
EPSTEIN: 4. m drift 5. kancel 6. killing 7. times 8. next
9. estrellas 10. mighty
SHEDDING: 11. kids'hop 12. cupcake 13. all a game
14. no healthy drink this morning 15. turtle preservation
16. sleek car 17. spies like me 18. westing
QUARANTINE: 19. q_1 20. q_2 21. q_3
artwork: jed voltz . www.monglo.com
esto es ocio002 2007
(HOMETAPES 015 CDLP)
CD: November 2006 Vinyl LP: March 2007
TRACKLIST AND INFO THE SAME AS CD...
the difference is the sweet vinyl and the beautiful layout all done by my friend and fellow louisville-dweller kathleen lolley.
1. gb
2. w
3. ydk
*a note about the story below...some have taken it to mean i was unfamiliar with jazz in general before being introduced to eric dolphy. that isn't the case, but dolphy was a total mindfuck to me after being most familiar with coltrane and davis...
excerpts below...
reckless records - these modern excursions into european free Jazz experimental electronic tonalism seems not to just be an exercise in influence hopping. the traditional powerhouses, mostly eric dolphy, and modern classical composer iannis xenakis are all over the the pieces. but their subtlety is medicinal and noble. there are no cheap ploys here, only the honest depth of fascinating music.
in 2000 or so, my friend simon furnish opened my eyes to a new world of jazz that i hadn't explored by introducing me to eric dolphy. i devoured the music and ideas with a voraciousness that i hadn't had since i first discovered punk rock. at some point shortly thereafter he loaned me a biography of eric dolphy by simosko and tepperman. it was skeletal, but i was hungry for any window into his approach to music and life. one passage in particular jumped out at me, a quote from a dolphy interview in down beat from 1962. "at home (in california) i used to play, and the birds always used to whistle with me. i would stop what i was working on and play with the birds...birds have notes in between our notes - you try to imitate something they do and, like, maybe it's between f and f-sharp, and you'll have to go up or come down on the pitch...indian music has something of the same quality - different scales and quarter tones." this single quote filled my head with a wide range of romantic images of dolphy's interaction and fascination with birds.
this record is a tribute to both eric dolphy and the bird sounds that mystify not only us, but all others who listen to our world with a different set of ears. it also, in some small way, is a response to the microscopic sampling technique employed by many modern composers. while it can be beautiful, it seems strange to pay tribute to jazz by taking a microsecond of it so far out of context that there is no way to know a sample's source aside from the statements of the composer. it was my hope with this record, that i could somehow decontextualize and create a new set of music using the sounds of eric dolphy without losing his fundamental dolphy-ness for lack of a better word. A collage, a collaboration, a tribute.
aquarius records - any record that is an homage
to eric dolphy and his (possibly imagined) interaction and fascination
with birds is pretty much guaranteed to hit the spot. but when said record
is wrapped in some of the most striking cd artwork we've seen in ages,
and is in fact a strange sort of jazz drone collage constructed from
samples of dolphy records, field recordings and some added percussion,
well, it's almost like they came to us and asked us what sort of record
we wanted to hear, and we told them "let's see, drones for sure,
some field recordings, and heck, why not include some dolphy..."
signal
to noise - highly moody, fragmented, dark, and dreamtime echoic, the
main mass of the "melody" galumphs around witch-fires and ominous
fairylands before settling into introspective navel-gazing, awaking abstractedly,
muzzily.
losing
today - sometimes chilling and
ominous at others fluent and lilting, psychedelic on occasion (as on ‘w’)
and equally abstract and alien in a bbc radiophonic workshop way while
feeding in distantly to the outer edges of moondog’s world - the
almost misty winter morn day breaking woodland inter specie chatter of
the opening suite ‘gb’ - the briefest piece here at just
under six minutes - could even pass for a soundtrack to those obscure
eastern european animations that frequently appeared to much puzzlement
on british children’s tv screens in the early 70’s.
boomkat - it’s the sort of music that practically dares
you not to allow your imagination to go into overload; humanoid confectionary,
beautiful lost girls, evil witches and wizards, oversized vegetation,
kindly old men with no ulterior motives – it’s all far fetched
but quite, quite endearing.
the wire - teetering at the edge of becoming a symphonic field recording
(Scenester Credentials 008 CD/LP)
December 2005
my friends in the shadow government asked if i would remix a track...and i was delighted to do so. they're an awesome band from parts unknown. check them out here!
1. dissent is democracy
2. noble flavor
3. zero geez
4. trench art
5. big bazooka
6. mole infestation
7. organ blues
8. i'm just a draft card (new raw deal)
9. house of no hope
10. alright computer/digital christmas
11. document shedding
12. packed with kisses
13. mingus con (seed to son)
(OCIO 001 CDR)
July 2005
this was the first release that roberto and i did together. he needed something for his tour of japan. my only contribution was the remix...available for download below.
LADO 1: EPSTEIN
1. opening
2. hecho mas
3. gritan
4. death wish
5. entonces
6. canto de hermanos
LADO 2: BOOM AND BIRDS
7. interlude
8. insect black eloise
9. naelotrebor
10. one visit
11. theme 1
songs 1-7 roberto carlos lange
song 8 jason trammell and roberto lange
song 9 rearranged and recomposed by shedding
song 10 jason trammell and roberto lange
song 11 adam heathcott and roberto lange
design: adam wills printing: kristi sword
shout to: carlos a. lange, lmf, bobby rose (cp), botanica del jibaro, and arepaz
(Autumn Records Leaf 010 CDR)
July 2004
played in st. louis while on tour recently. the night of the show had intense storms, and flooding ensued as we headed from the radio station to the club. the next morning, after a breakfast fruit cup, we headed to the mighty st. louis arch, as sara p. had never been. instead of ascending the manmade wonder that i had visited so recently, i decided to enjoy the beautiful weather in the park, by the mississippi river, with bobby m. and joe s.; paul d. was napping in the van. i had my minidisc and mic with the intent to capture some sounds, but i was largely aimless, which often leads to the most fun times capturing moments. bobby m. suggested i record the river. how obvious and cliche i thought. as they headed back for the van, i walked down to the flooded waterway. soon, as a young boy and his grandmother departed nearby, i was lost in the hypnotic sounds of the river. i quickly realized i should record these moments of relaxation and quiet on an otherwise chaotic tour. if nothing more than as an audio memory of the refreshing morning of solitude and meditation. there are three separate tracks. first, the water lapping against a flooded stairwell, the slapping sound seeming so alien to my ears. the second track, the water washing over a flooded bank of cobblestones, the sounds falling somewhere in between the lapping stairs and the final track: the wash of water over a flooded slope of smooth concrete.
1. lapping stairs
2. cobblestone wash
3. concrete wash
(Datamusik 018 MP3)
November 2003
this is an excellent series of mp3 release run by my friend pelle in denmark. i am very proud to be a part of such a fine collection of artists. download my tracks and others by voks, mainpal inv., mikkel metal, kim hiorthøy, v/vm, and more at their website here!
1. am drone ii
2. konnektapeas
3. rain drops revisited
(Hometapes 006 vinyl 12" EP)
May 2003
from the hometapes website:
when asked about format, mr. bell sided with vinyl. the music was actually the product of a performance in louisville, kentucky. the performance had a natural low point midway through and thus was perfectly suited to be cut into two distinct sides for a record. procuring an artist was left up to us, and having been a distant follower of jay ryan and the bird machine in chicago i knew we had to take a chance. jay loved connor's music and agreed to draw and hand print 12"x24" posters to be folded in half and made into the cover of the record. needless to say, we were beside ourselves. connor's music is difficult to describe, but something along the lines of "whirrrrr-grrind-poppy-clickkin-humm-fuzzzysnap-shhhake-boooooom" should suffice i would hope. if you are familiar with the mouse on mars, microstoria, et al camp you should probably get this.
record info:
performed live in louisville, kentucky
at aslans how gallery, april 19, 2002.
thanks to adam and sara at hometapes, jay ryan, tim furnish, carrie neumayer, voks, keenan lawler, keith fullerton whitman, greg davis, lullatone, friends, families, inspirational musics, and my other outlets: the shining path, parlour, momo and voks.
cover by www.thebirdmachine.com
1. sclass baby bird v.2
2. rain drops revisited v. 2
3. farm and v.2
4. strain, sold v. 2
5. konnektapeas v.2
excerpts below...
mimaroglu music sales - the first fruits of a new wave of american producer weaned not just on your standard aphecre ocean-crossing electronica but on zany a-musik / köln-lineage damage and the noises that followed it. beautiful, droney, and wise...
grooves - bell infuses his laptop works with an ample dose of human signifiers that occasionally hint at a sort of calculated naiveté. every sound is carefully arranged for the maximum impression of organicism— glowing tonal chords fold seamlessly into one another, wobbly crinkles of surface noise keeps time above soft-edged pops, voices seep into the mix and erode beneath the music’s murky drifting.
lost at sea - it is quixotic to be sure, appropriate for a funeral visitation as much as it is a wide-eyed morphine trip, an uncredited soundtrack to virtually every human emotion. you can cry over it, fuck to it, escape with it to a distant beach or an internal island. murky, spiritual, complicated and direct...
hand stitched heart - it's unpretentious yet it's totally stylish, real nice.
Shedding
- "Now I'm Shedding"
(No Label DEMO CDR)
January 2002
this was my first collection of songs that i felt proud of and proceeded
to send it around. i talked briefly with thomas knak (opiate/hobby industries)
but he disappeared at some point and nothing came of these songs.
these songs have nothing to do with my first 12" but i was very fond
of the title 'now i'm shedding'.
note the little fur on the spine of each copy :)
thanks to...
carrie neumayer, voks, tim furnish, johnny cakes,
keenan lawler,
thaniel ion lee
1. now i'm shedding
2. forgris
3. forosho
4. forosho v. 2
5. didn't think i would
6. forgris v. 2
7. white squall