Elkhorn - Sun Cycle / Elk Jam

Going back through all of the descriptions on this site, there has been mention of how listening time and environment contour the feelings music creates. With this in mind, the correct moment to drop the stylus on this pair of vinyl heavies needs some degree of calculation. Thankfully, responsibilities were pushed aside and consolidated, leaving enough undisturbed absorption time to cycle through multiple plays of both of these compositions. Initial thoughts were to separate Sun Cycle and Elk Jam into separate entries, but at some point while listening the realization stabilized for this to be one description.

The most appreciable feature of music is the ability to loose the fact it is being listened to. This might seem like a contradiction, so an explanation is needed. Listening to Elkhorn through four sides of grooves, there are many instances when the fervor of the sounds reach a red lining overloading status. Each musician in some conscious singularity playing with such intensity as to escape the gravitational draw. By some science yet to be understood, all artists pull away reaching a nexus between the group. The music at this point is all out, like someone still talking loud when the room quiets. This momentous earnestness by the band takes all listeners through time and space. Maybe it is just called zoning out and going for the ride, but when thoughts return and the music has kicked back, the world looks different. Now small events and unnoticed surroundings beam with a fantastic spectrum. Elkhorn now playing in a fascinating and super chilled manner, the backdrop for allowing the details of the surroundings to become clear and in focus. Awareness carried by music and not being aware of it, this is what makes Elkhorn special.

Drew Gardner and Jesse Sheppard are the duo of Elkhorn. They have previous releases on both cassette and vinyl, Eiderdown Records, Debacle Records and Beyond Beyond is Beyond Records. Everything is sold out except for the cassette Lionfish on Eiderdown. The earlier compositions are the straight duo of Drew and Jesse. For the newest pair of releases, Sun Cycle and Elk Jam, Ryan Jewel and Willie Lane have made two into a quartet. Sun Cycle pushes a little more towards the preceding basis of Jesse's twelve string and Ryan's electric guitar. There is scattered percussion from Ryan and more electric from Willie, adding a new depth when needed, but not changing the fabric too much from what it has been. The four musician's full force lets loose on Elk Jam, hence the name. This is not a constant though, there are many junctures where the more duoish Sun Cycle and the rocking Elk Jam crossover. For example, the eastern "Subway Mirror Heart" with tabla, a dreamlike rock ballad and "Jam II", pairing twelve string with electrics, lite on drums from Ryan. Each track could have been on the other album, but the subtle beauty is the tethering of these compositions together, each sharing aspects of each other. The fact they are individual lps released in accord is a desirable quality, but a gate fold with both vinyls side by side would be equally as appropriate.

Heavy and lite, a constant push to fill the space of these extremes. Sounds gathered from a complex web of passions and experiences. Decades of roots for Sun Cycle and Elk Jam, so many places these passages come from. There could be a long list of artists to draw comparisons from, but this is not needed. Elkhorn just takes traditions or what substantiates multiple styles and genres, stacking it together for the Dagwood Sandwich of sounds. Acoustic guitar, long sustained notes from electric guitars, and worldly percussive rhythms sparking global resonance.

An interesting thought, what if you pulled either of the records from a thrift store bin? The outer sleeve worn enough to preclude it from being new. A label you do not recognize. The swirled vinyl would probably be a give away, but for this analogy lets just say they vinyl is black. What would your thoughts be when the needle finds the groove? You would probably spill your drink trying to grab the cover while looking for details. Elkhorn is timeless, fifty years ago or fifty years from now, there is no exact moment in this span where origins can be pinpointed. This also touches on another aspect of what has been composed and played, recorded or live are very similar in sound. Extremely straight forward selections which are easily just a massive set. And speaking of live, Elkhorn is playing at the WFMU Record Fair, Sunday the 28th at 3pm. Not sure if this will be broadcast live.

Released on Feeding Tube Records a week ago, copies from the label have already fled. You can find these records for sale at Forced Exposure. Each recording embodies the heavy and lite aspects of sound. This feature is complimented with mostly clear physical vinyl, darker swirls towards the center. A touch of love for those who enjoy the physical medium. Take a look through the pictures below to see. Feeding Tube Records has already announced there will be a second pressing. The digital is available from Elkhorn's bandcamp page.

sun CYCLE

elk JAM

Links
Elkhorn site - facebook - bandcamp
Feeding Tube Records site

Skyminds - Skyminds

If you are a fan of Oakland's Inner Islands label, Skyminds could have been there. Instead, these sounds have been directed southerly to Los Angeles' auasca label. A place where arrival is fortunately facilitated by the first track on this composition titled "An Opening", giving all listeners a chance to chemical wash the inner worries and daily wearisome from thoughts. The distances covered in these sonic long hauls is tremendous. A flattened landscape exposing three hundred and sixty degrees of horizon. Blue emptiness infiltrated by high clouds with glowing feathered edges. The sun falls below the curve, then everything above changes tones. Skyminds follows similar patterns. The expansiveness of these sounds finding tranquility in drone, ancient worldly rhythms and even the resolve of human voice. Like dusk slowly grabbing light away, changes go relatively unnoticed as it happens. Skyminds subtly transforms aural constitutes without any jagged edges. Ambience to rhythmic grooves, innovations happen without seams.

Seven tracks varying in time and pace. There are strong beliefs these sounds have primordial origins. Part of the planet’s energy now channeled by like minded consciousnesses. Both Sean Conrad and Michael Henning with a rich awareness of sounds long ago and shapes that will be. These selections correlating with moments akin to Brian Eno, Stag Hare and follow the long lived diversity of Alexander Courage. Which does make sense, since the entire listen has a slight push towards the qualities contained in an original score. Over forty minutes gives these experienced artists a large canvas to record on. Many listens and there is still more to absorb.

Released in an edition of one hundred at the start of March. Copies are currently available. If you are interested in previous solo works by either artist, here are two quick links for sounds that have been described on Lost in a Sea of Sound.

• Michael Henning - Selaroda - viaje a través de sonidos transportative 
• Sean Conrad - Channelers - Entrance to the Next

    

Links
auasca site - bandcamp - facebook

Black Eagle Child - Six Lugubrious Airs

Sometimes it takes a while to figure out something simple. Six Lugubrious Airs is a second release for Black Eagle Child on Geology Records. The first titled Lobelia was just shy of two years ago. Was wondering what the connection was, then noticed Black Eagle Child and Geology Records are both from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Lobelia was beautiful place for a beginning and Six Lugubrious Airs is an excellent way to continue the fine working relationship. Most interesting is the title to this composition, something that must have a further meaning. At least term "German Athens" is able to be searched for and processed, Six Lugubrious Airs will most likely remain a mystery.  

Michael Jantz as Black Eagle Child offers eight songs that have slipped past all hungry labels and their double barrels of releases. Maybe something from ten years ago or just one, these selections have accumulated and had good fortune to find love from Geology Records. Might as well get this noted, there is another physical option, a 12" Lathe Cut available from Black Eagle Child's bandcamp page. Not sure how many Lathe Cuts were made, but there are currently only four left. Geology Records only has fifty in the cassette edition, so all together, not that many physical copies in either form have been done.

If you have read this far, there is a good chance of noticing the sounds have not been described. The reason for this is the elusiveness of Six Lugubrious Airs sonic presence. Could be in relation to their outsider nature, all finding each other together here at this moment in time. What are we called? Lugubrious, that will work. The opening track "Acres", drops the tool box in descriptive reasoning process for the entire album, banjo with sweet electric guitar? A loved musician with the same creative genius coming to mind is John Hartford. From folk and bluegrass roots to something all his own, Michael Jantz is free from genres as well. Imagination and talent help make every track on Six Lugubrious Airs effortless pleasures. These selections have contrasting qualities, an introspective thought provoking resonance with a brightness tending towards social relaxation. Like you want to ponder and travel in the minds flow, but enjoying company with others while Six Lugubrious Airs is playing seems pretty good as well. Sometimes the tones have a lonely essence about them, then field recordings of people and voices gently push the listen away from being a total thought burner. The last track "So Long", is a grand example of how subtle this release is. Brings thoughts of Tuluum Shimmering and Stag Hare combining energies. Hopefully a few of these words will stick. The most important particular is your time to listen.
 

Links
Geology Records site - bandcamp - facebook - twitter
Black Eagle Child - bandcamp 

naps - better to give

The confluence of ambient worlds, a consciousness channeling outward through current electronics as subtle natural surroundings well up. Naps finds home here. Two mediums, thought and environment, with vastly different constructs, both reaching back to the same origin. Interesting how emotions and feelings rely heavily on the surrounding landscape and increasingly more, this fostering habitat depends upon the feelings of all the souls it harbors. A topic for future discussion, but relevant in what is being heard now on better to give.

Jason Calhoun has found home on Lily Tapes and Discs with previous Naps releases. There is also Bridgetown Records full length from 2016. The common factor of all three of these featured recordings, they are sold out. Now the Omaha, Nebraska label Gertrude Tapes has a very limited full length, in an edition of fifty at almost forty minutes of recording time. Hopefully this helps to quantify the how special Jason's forays into beautiful concurrence are. 

Within the long tracks on better to give, naps melds sounds with extreme skill. Delicate patience... a drone record absorbing the atmosphere it exists in. A landscape filled with old imperfections, part of the unique beauty holding true throughout the majority of naps' sound. Simply explained, within this aural panorama, the erosion of what were once blemishes has coalesced with energy growing around it. Think of a ship sunk to become the base for a coral reef. Jason's clunking start of the tape player has resonated for so long, the sound feels nostalgic and warm. Mechanical din that gives groundwork for an industrial world, all having become part of the allure the mind holds sweet. A tranquil heavy with some fine crazing (pottery term), outstanding from start to finish. Thank you naps and Gertrude Tapes.

Copies are currently available from the label's bandcamp page. Don't wait on this.

Gertrude Tapes site - bandcamp - facebook
naps - bandcamp - facebook

Zach Rowden / Jarrett Gilgore / Ian McColm - First Lapse

Played with just a little bit of volume, the clarity of First Lapse resonates with definition. The aural matter these three artist emit, reaches towards the threshold of the unknown. Each instrument, it's own voice in a three person conversation. And in this dialogue, the fervor and freedom First Lapse sustains, is truly the most magnificent feature of the composition. A sonic foray in such a degree of motion, kinematic theory will be needed for music scholar's studies.

How to describe music played in the fringes, is a difficult task. The most honest words to write, "these sounds are out there". From listening and writing, there are other combinations of skilled musicians working in the same vein. This release was described just a few entries ago, Every Way But What Came to Mind. Three different artists, similar in structure, but with a sally in their own unique direction. And farther back, the three artist making First Lapse were together on a split cassette issued by Pidgeon Records. Also described on Lost In A Sea Of Sound. This familiarity does little to make characterization of sounds more coherent to any potential readers. Maybe only quantifying that these amalgamations of creativity and energy are continually growing. This might lead to the topic of how far back the roots go, but again this is for music scholar's studies.

With the compact disc version of First Lapse, many repeat listens were attended to. Thirty minutes of sound divided into five tracks, there is enough energy on this album to power a small city for twenty three days. Most prominent is the alto saxophone by Jarrett Gilgore. Notes and passages that can slice into the mind then heal the wound directly after. A dimly lit street corner with the proverbial horn playing, then assailing persnickety notes, dancing just above. Ian McColm's percussive abilities are delicate at times, simple anti-rhythms or mini riffs laid down as riddled canvas for Jarret and Zach. But like distant thunder getting closer, power and ferocity develop in any instant. The most obscured sounds are those of Zach Rowden's upright bass. Maybe a factor of the combination of instruments, more likely a choice in how to make everything stand out. A integral key to depth and richness on much of First Lapse. Zach's talent is special, a super glue of creative force holding everything together.

Released on disc by Raw Tonk Records from London. The label caters to the tertiary, delivering sounds from the edge. Artwork by talented Colin Webster on a recycled card stock case with insert. Not sure how many copies of First Lapse are in this edition, but they are currently available.There is also much to explore on this very well defined label, Raw Tonk Records.

Links
Raw Tonk Records - bandcamp - facebook
 Zach Rowden - facebook - bandcamp
Ian McColm site- facebook
Jarrett Gilgore - facebook

Bret Schneider - Constellations

A hot and very humid afternoon in Florida. The freshwater springs sparkle with cool and refreshing invitations. Plunging into the natural pool changes points of view, quickly and most agreeably. Temperature drops and the mind and body are charged. A world below is now exposed, ancient and always there. You are a visitor but still feel at home. Constellations embodies the aspects of this transitioning space. From the initial press of play, sounds surround the spirit, energizing and causing thoughts to wander. A reposition of perspectives allow splendid feelings to surface.

Bret Schneider captures consciousnesses with incredible deftness in electronic skills. These sounds match thought patterns and usher the mind from current frames of reference. There is a faint feeling of loneliness though. Something beautiful on a solo flight, speeding through natural mediums, water, air and farther out into space. Listeners hear the exquisiteness, but the sounds are not effected. Four tracks on this cassette constituting around fifty minutes of aural mist. The start with Imi's song is slow and radiant. Somewhere along the way, this sun drenched oasis brims with surge of vitality. Imi's Song ascends from droning roots, to twisting leaf like notes in a cosmic breath cast upon the planet. With the third track, Bret simply pushes everything through neck of the hour glass. Perfectly paced, flowing incredibly smooth, a beautiful track that elevates all thoughts. The last track, Adam's song is the most solitary. With brightness dimming rest has been eyed, everything slows as thoughts begin to tangle away from reason. The sonic journey seems to begin as it ends making Constellations a very sweet listen from start to finish.

Released on cassette by the relatively new label Distant Bloom. Both label and artist from St. Louis, Missouri. Fifty tapes in this edition, Constellations is the fifth release with the fourth, Dream of Fields, coming out one day before. The first three tapes from Distant Bloom are four copies away from being completely sold out. So do not wait...  Bret Schneider's composition is acquiring ears and will be gone soon.

Links
Distant Bloom - bandcamp - facebook
Bret Schneider site - bandcamp - facebook

Adams​/​Bucko​/​Cunningham - Every Way But What Came to Mind

Fire side folk one hundred years from now.Rhythms have relinquished themselves to time. This was once avant-garde improvisational freedom. Now the underwater home sphere company is playing these sounds during their open houses. Time changes everything and this can be heard on the new compilation by Alexander Adams, Bob Bucko Jr, and Alexander Cunningham. There are moments when the fever is in full force, but this is far from the feature. These artists have settled in, drawing a giant triangle to see how far the sounds can separate but still be connected. Of course stretching something that far has an elastic sonic snap back, there will be some serious welts on the consciousness. The distance each artist gives the other is the true genius of this composition. And as a listener, a new fourth corner has bid welcome and opened up.

Three tracks across forty minutes allows an abundant amount of time for development. But this is the wrong word. Every Way But What Came to Mind could be the antitheses of cumulative results. The moments of sound exist and are spurned on by talent and emotion. Each instrument, Cunningham's violin, Bucko's horn and Adam's drums, have abilities to both sooth and grate. There are plenty of passages when the cacophony is overwhelming, but this is never overdone. Instead, the crux of the sounds heard are almost casual, like three musicians playing across a large venue. Sounds meeting in the middle, fusing momentarily, then dispersing towards their counterparts. Their individuality is articulated and the cooperative effort establishes itself as something completely new. Yes, this is difficult to explain. A few listens and these words might mean more, or maybe not.

Every Way But What Came to Mind is released on Already Dead Tapes and Records in a edition of seventy five cassettes. Copies are available but quantities have quickly sold leaving only ten seven as this is written.

Link
Already Dead Tapes site - facebook - bandcamp - twitter

Ernia - Ernia

Five musicians making musical power at mercurial speeds. Percussion filling all senses, "the long roll" amazingly played by only one drummer. Imminent chords executed by dueling guitars, the landscape disappearing as smokey haze chokes all senses. Bass notes inducing surfaces to vibrate, the effect causing stability to be lost, everything falls. A voice reigns above, patterned with daily instructions or lessons of wisdom, difficult to decipher as the frantic urgency becomes overwhelming. Ernia has entered thoughts, pace and seriousness incentivizing the pulse rate to quicken. A sonic heaviness resting in the skull as brain matter is tenderized.

Hailing from Logroño, Spain, Ernia finds the pathway to Already Dead Tapes and Records for a self titled release. Recorded between 2013 to 2015, and originally released in 2016. There after these tracks fell before meticulous ears. Each step to follow, a professional curation crossing both country and continent. From Spain to Nachrodt, Germany then to Baltimore, Maryland. Mastering in Örebro, Sweden and then finally taking physical form with what Ernia has noted as the three R's, revamped, remixed and remastered.

The velocity present throughout these tracks is staggering. But Ernia seems to know you can't hop on a speeding train, there are moments when the pace slows and listening rungs can be gripped. Pull yourself in though, thoughts blur without notice. These sounds are an explosion cascading out in all directions but controlled by sonic stops. An extremely tight band with rhythm held in other worldly stasis. Each instrument and vocals at some higher level of consciousness.

Released on Already Dead Tapes and Records on cassette in the beginning of March. This is in an edition of seventy five. There are also other options for purchase, compact disc format and t-shirt bundles. These details are on the Ernia bandcamp page.

*** Lost in a Sea of Sound is not qualified to be describing Ernia. And because of this, no classifications of genres have been or will be used. If this music helps you sleep or keeps you awake on dark and empty freeways, you know so much more.

Link
Already Dead Tapes site - facebook - bandcamp - twitter
Ernia - bandcamp - facebook 

Wolkokrots - Atomnye Deti

There is only sound. A shotgun microphone pointed towards the planet, civilization barely discernible in the chaos of a fragile world. The recordings are amazingly mysterious, finding secret rhythms, harnessing the spectrum of desolate to destruction... then moving on. Atomnye Deti pulls wonder from simple patterns and throws tumultuous interference into resting consciousnesses. A sonically perplexing peregrination from a world all live in but scarcely understand.

Ilia Belorukov & Miguel A. Garcia are the force behind Wolkokrots. Describing the endless amount of work from either artist would be challenging on its own, but together, requiring a great deal of research and possibly even a spreadsheet. Maybe the easiest way would be to provide discog links which are included in their names. With this being done, the focus is the cassette in hand titled Atomnye Deti. A mesmerizing composition reaching the incredible audible depth and apogee. The faint rumble of massive engines cause speakers to shutter and thoughts to connect with a hidden world of something more. A place behind the walls where doors are locked or forbidden. The opposite range producing sounds beyond tape hiss, acute Tinnitus causing the mind to wonder if things are broken or is this normal. Lurking in the middle is the beautiful patience of both artists. Sparse beats and rhythms become cherished, enduring sonic scrutiny is enjoyably needed for clues to the constitutions of both of these well experienced artists.

Recently released on the eh? label in cassette form. Unsure of how many in this edition, but copies are currently available. There are so many releases by these artists... Lost in a Sea of Sound described a Tanuki Records tape just a little while back in October. Etwas was with Ilia, Miguel and Alfredo Costa Monteiro. Copies of this cassette are still available as well.

Sound Samples
   a1 - puchina
   b2 - sweet poolside

Links
Public Eyesore site - facebook
Ilia Belorukov  - facebook - bandcamp 
Miguel A. Garcia  - facebook - bandcamp

Tuluum Shimmering - These Flowers In Dawn's Twilight At Illusion Temple

Descriptive words about music are incredibly finite. Melodies and rhythms in the stage of being recounted, enter the consciousness through many varied states of emotion and attention. When writing the account of this interaction, which listen connects the best? Are they all cumulative or was one experience more telling than any other? Now add the girth of what is being heard. Listening for twenty or thirty minutes is far from three to four hours. Concentration wanders away and returns, deliberations twinkle like string lights, thoughts forgotten and new ones emerge. These are some of the perplexities associated with describing Tuluum Shimmering. Sounds requiring nothing more than time, and giving everything in metaphysical nourishment. A track ends, the music quiets, bird song is heard, was there really a finite point between the two? Maybe this is the true purpose of Tuluum Shimmering, priming the consciousness for the fascinating and fragile world. Helping the mind establish a relation with the myriad of beautiful and natural details that go unnoticed.

Four compact discs with somewhere around four hours of sunlit rhythms. Melodies drone like in essence, exposing microcosmic details with the most subtle augmentation. The hefty duration of so many Tuluum Shimmering offerings allows movement similar to sun or moon's fall then crest across the horizon. Unoticeable motion in the sky above, radiating more grandiosely as the planet swiftly turns away. These Flowers In Dawn's Twilight At Illusion Temple finds solace in the structure of past Tuluum Shimmering compositions, and the description of slowly building sonic landscapes, that crescendo then disperse is valid for more than just this release. There so much to be heard, tracks varying in length, instruments diverse throughout. Influences from Africa, India, European Folk, and a future not fully understood, fill the passages of These Flowers In Dawn's Twilight At Illusion Temple. For all of the Tuluum Shimmering sounds that have come before, this new aural journey tethers itself and then exceeds in pulling away without loosing connections to the origins.

These Flowers In Dawn's Twilight At Illusion Temple is the newest release from Tuluum Shimmering. Four individual packaged discs, with connecting art and body. This is number twenty five in the compact disc series by Tuluum Shimmering. The long lived project is massive with many of the previous installments either two to four hours of music. Distinctive sounds and following patterns of geologic time. Copies are available from the Tuluum Shimmering site or the bandcamp page. These will slowly and surely disappear, so do not wait for too long.

 

Links
Tuluum Shimmering site - bandcamp