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Physical discs now available!! There are a very limited number, with handmade cases created by P Nosa. CD's are 10 dollars, plus 1.99 for shipping. Please contact us for information on ordering a disc. Or just order one below... |
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Mohadev: This is the third "February" album that Ben and I have recorded in as many years. There were several changes this time around- I left Tucson for Austin last year, so this was the first time we were forced to do everything over the internet (although even when we lived a few blocks from each other most of the work was done online). We invited guest musicians and a guest composer for the first time. Additionally, while all the writing/recording was done in February, we decided to continue mixing/tweaking the songs, and didn't wrap things up until mid May. I think this is the best album we've made so far; it's diverse, yet holds together well, and the writing/playing are at their most mature and nuanced. Until next year. 01 Lullaby Mohadev: I started this track, and gave Ben the sections (performed on guitar, bass, piano, keys), which he rearranged and added his parts to. Ben: I added drumset, vibes, pitched ceramic bowls and metal objects. And love. 02 The Great and Lowly Ben: I started this song with the vibraphone melody in the second part and worked forward/backward from there, adding drumset and keyboard. Mohadev: I took what Ben sent me and learned most of his vibe parts on banjo, then added a little synth, acoustic guitar, and ebow'ed electric. Ben then rearranged/extended it into what it is now. This is probably the closest we've come to "showing off" our chops... (you can practically imagine our beards blowing wildly in the artificial wind and light) 03 Doll House Mohadev: I contacted Richard Wileman (aka Karda Estra, a musician/composer who I have a lot of admiration for), and asked if he'd be willing to contribute a song to our album. He agreed, and sent us a demo a few days later.
04 Eastern Correspondence Mohadev: This is my version of the song that Ben and I composed together over email. I wrote the chords and melody for the first section and emailed them to Ben, who proceeded to write the next section of chords and melody, and so on. There was no sharing of time signature or tempo, melodic phrasing, nor how many measures each chord should last. As the song evolved, Mohadev and Ben were recording separate versions of the written material without hearing the progress of the other's work (Ben's version is Western Correspondence). To me, this version has a very 60's/early 70's film music vibe to it. Amanda Rucker (who did a brief stint in my live band Tightrope Ensemble) played flute. Ben and Jack Sterbis' last minute mixing turned this song from one of my least favorite on the album into one of my favorites. 05 Gardens Under Ground Mohadev: I started this with the main guitar riff. Ben added the next section, and we emailed it back and forth until we had a full song. I played guitars, bass, and synth. Ben: This song was actually one of the most difficult for us to arrange. More than any other song we recorded, the difficulty of collaborating over the internet was most pronounced. I played drumset (liberally gated), congas, vibraphone, keyboards, electronics, accordion and bells. Mohadev's guitar is what reallly ties things together, though. 06 Wind in the Branches Mohadev: This started as a drum improvisation by Ben, which I edited until my favorite sections formed something I felt could be a "song." Ben also recorded vibraphone chords and arpeggios which I used along with sampled guitar and midi instruments to assemble a composition that would have been impossible to write in any other way (I think). This is a more accessible experiment along the lines of Calle Debauche's Synergism (from Calle Debauche - s/t). 07 B. Monitors Ben: One of the biggest drawbacks of collaborating over long distances is the inability to improvise together. In order to try and capture the energy of improvisation we used the track 'Broken Monitors' by B. Fleischman as a foundation for us to improvise over. I played drumsets, synth bass and harmonium (special thanks again to Yoga Oasis for use of the harmonium). Mohadev played banjo, guitars and synthesizer. Once all the parts were combined, the original track was removed and the resulting song is 'B. Monitors'. You can listen to some of B. Fleischman's music HERE. 08 The Drizzle Ben: This is another track that began as a short section and gathered new parts and instruments as we sent it back and forth. I started this with drumset, synth bass and vibraphone and sent the track to Mohadev. Mohadev: When we first started brainstorming for this album, one of my suggestions was that we make a disco album, and this song is kind of our attempt at that (it was also the first part Ben sent to me in early February). It also has a rare Terraformation solo tradeoff (between me on keys and Ben on vibes), and a lot of Ben's trademark production touches. 09 Shapes of Water Ben: Similar to the creation of 'Wind in the Branches' by Mohadev, this track is the result of my slicing and re-arranging a recording of his solo guitar chords/arpeggios. Note that there are two separately edited guitar parts that are panned to either channel. Drumset, djembe, calfskin drum, vibes, bells, melodica, keyboard were added after the foundation of guitar parts were mostly completed. 10 Empty the Bellows Ben: I wanted to start a song that would sound different than most of our music, so I began with a kalimba (thumb piano). As the song developed, I added synth bass, drumset, djembe, electronics, trash cymbals and pitched metal pans. Mohadev: I think this track took the longest to come together. I didn't really know what to do with the original kalimba/percussion file Ben sent me and sat on it for a few weeks. After a week or two, Ben made some adjustments which made it easier for me to understand the direction the song should go and I added guitars, bass and synth. I have a version somewhere that I started recording before Ben's adjustments that would have gone in a completely different direction. 11 Western Correspondence Ben: The companion piece to 'Eastern Correspondence', this is my arrangement of the song that we composed over email. Thanks to Vicki Brown for her beautitul violin work and flexibility to record with such short notice. Mohadev played guitars and bass; I played drumset, electronics, vibes, keyboards. During the recording of this piece new sections were created after the official shared score was composed, adding to the variation between Eastern and Western correspondences. 12 Lotus Cord Ben: I recorded this in response to a long, frustrating recording session on drumset for 'The Drizzle'. After all the intensity of the passage I was recording, I needed something soothing to help my mind relax. I recorded this on vibraphone and lap harp in about an hour and sent it to Mohadev, but he insisted that it sounded complete to him. It makes a nice outro, and the modified fragment of this piece at the beginning of the album helps to create a feeling of balance from start to finish. |
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