Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution, the national museum of the United States. We are part of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located in Washington, D.C. 

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Channelled madness – the sound Dawn of Midi spent years shaping, culminating into their most mesmerising work yet

With Dysnomia, the Brooklyn-based group Dawn of Midi abandons improvisation in favour of composition, utilising sophisticated rhythmic structures from North and West African folk traditions to weave a sonic tapestry of trance-inducing grooves. From close up one may see only dots, but when stepping back an undulating image reveals itself. “We didn’t want to create anything cerebral,” says Belyamani, “we wanted something visceral, something that would awaken our instinctive dance impulses.”
Having met at California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles in 2006, bassist Aakaash Israni, pianist Amino Belyamani and drummer Qasim Naqvi found their original rapport through late night tennis matches on the campus court. The chemistry they founded there eventually led them back indoors to improvise together; something they did in total darkness to deprive themselves of all their senses except the crucial one – their hearing.
The manner, by which a trio of solely acoustic instruments ends up sounding like electronic music, has to do with the unconventional ways the group play their instruments on Dysnomia. The record comes to life in the trio’s critically acclaimed live shows, a test of endurance and trust that involves performing their hand-looped acoustic minimalism note for note, just as the compositions were recorded. Dawn of Midi’s sets are as energetic and rhythmic as a seamlessly mixed DJ-set, mesmerising fans in the same way the group’s favourite experimental and electronic acts have for decades.
The album was recorded to 2-inch tape at Waterfront Studios in Hudson, New York - a former church that was purchased and transformed into an analogue recording playground by the great engineer Henry Hirsch. Once the band visited the studio and met Henry, an expert in analogue recording equipped with a vintage Helios console, 16 and 24-track tape machines and a superb collection of microphones, it was obvious they had to record there; it was miles ahead of anywhere else they had visited. Rusty Santos then mixed the album to make sure it would hit as hard as the group’s favourite electronic albums do in spite of it being entirely acoustic.
“We wanted to make a record that sounded both musically futuristic and sonically vintage,” explains Israni, “and since the album never saw a proper international release, it is very exciting to see what might happen when more people are exposed to it. And to be aligned with Erased Tapes, whose enthusiasm for the music they release has done a lot for exposing unique instrumental and electronic music, makes it that much more interesting.”

Dysnomia will be released worldwide on June 1st, 2015 through Erased Tapes – available on 2x LP, CD and Download.

Damon Wyckoff: songwriter, vocals, guitars, keys
Josh Lacey: guitars, pedal steel, mandolin, vocals
Mason DeMusey: bass, guitars, keys, banjo
Tony Cale: Drums, guitars, keys, engineering


A Californian, Americana/Pop/Rock quartet, formed in 1996 in Sacramento, CA. Their self released album “Unknown Territory” in 1997 garnered generous amounts of press, and touring while also solidifying their first indie deal with Cargo Records. In 1998 Cargo released “Halo In My Backpack” and the band continued touring heavily in support across all of the West and Southwest United States.

Over the course of the next year the record label collapsed and after a missed opportunity to have Ryan Adams produce their third release, the band found themselves in the studio with producer Craig Schumacher of Wavelab Studios recording songs for a new album that would never be released. After a myriad of line-up changes and continued touring, the band in it’s new incarnation was back in the studio recording ”Amador Frequency”. Recorded in 2003, with more touring and more personnel changes the band went on hiatus. Playing very seldom until the newly formed Test Pattern Records showed an interest in releasing the shelved recording. In the summer of 2011 the band signed with Test Pattern and “Amador Frequency” was released, bringing the music and the band out of hibernation and back to the stage.

The time away allowed the band the space to evolve and come back with a new vibrant perspective that prompted them to get back to the studio once again to record their fourth album to date entitled ”Chambers”. Over the course of two sessions in the past year the band recorded at Sylvia Massy’s, Radio Star Studios in Northern California. With this album soon to be released the band will be back touring in support.

For Booking: forevergoldrush@hotmail.com

Easy Sound Recording Company is a Los Angeles-based record label and home for Vetiver, Rogue Wave, Fruit Bats, Futurebirds, Howlin Rain, Isobel Campbell, Marianne Faithfull, Papercuts, the Donkeys, Rodrigo Amarante, and EDJ.

Vanguard Records, part of Concord Bicycle Music’s Fantasy Label Group, is one of the world’s leading independent record labels. Its eclectic roster of quality artists includes Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, Switchfoot, O.A.R., Flogging Molly, Parachute, Sallie Ford, Matt Nathanson, Chris Isaak, Barenaked Ladies, Greg Laswell, Trevor Hall, Indigo Girls, and more. It’s rich history of catalog artists features Levon Helm, Merle Haggard, Joan Baez, Mindy Smith, Buddy Guy, Big Mama Thornton, Junior Wells, John Fahey, to name a few.

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