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TRADEWINDS SOUNDTRACK

Tradewinds "A Wavesailing Film" - 2B - 2017

Sound: Félicia Atkinson & Christina Vantzou.
Recorded by JAB at Commend NYC, November, 8th, 2017.

Folded Galaxy is the first edition in Commend's Here series. Learn more about the series and purchase the release here: commendnyc.com/products/here001-felicia-christina-folded-galaxy

HERE001 - Félicia & Christina - Folded Galaxy - Excerpt

The second Commend Here edition captures Miho Hatori and Dave Harrington’s collaboration at Commend on December 1, 2017. Called Mondialité, this improv performance is part of Hatori’s ongoing elaboration on philosopher Edouard Glissant’s theory of “globality,” an alternate form of global connection. The December 1 performance of Mondialité lends outernational sonics to theory, a driving downtempo set worked out through Hatori’s production and entrancing vocals, and draped with Harrington’s dreamy guitar work. From the anticipatory chatter in the room a stomping percussion-line drives the piece in a dynamic exploration of sound and speech, Hatori’s voice calling out from an earthly landscape brimming with chirps, warbles and other signs of life. The story ends with a whistle of noise, as if the entire piece is blown away with a strong wind. Edition of 35 hand-numbered cassettes.

Buy now: https://shop.commendnyc.com/products/here002-miho-hatori-dave-harrington-mondialite

HERE002 - Miho Hatori & Dave Harrington - Mondialité - Excerpt

The third installment of Commend's HERE series captures Brian Allen Simon and Bryce Hackford's collaboration at Commend on April 5th, 2018, where the pair performed collaborative, improvised journeys referencing the instrumental pallette of Simon's album "Tongue" to evolving effect. 

"Tongue" is not only a deeply personal work, but a locally specific one: it was recorded in Tuscany in April 2017, and draws on that particularity of place and time through field recordings, in addition to piano (including its internal mechanisms, its strings and hammers) and saxophone (including the breathing patterns that accompany it - perhaps this, and the incidental sounds of the piano, are site-specific field recordings, too). 

The performance at Commend reorients that experience as two voices in a different place, moving intuitively through and alongside this “original” moment: the spiritual jazz motif of a glissando-ing piano dancing amongst a cello’s warm creak and a breeze of cymbals abruptly arrives and finishes in a repeated cycle, descending into inviting formless passages, Brian’s horn lilting over the the click of strings and eventually continuing that thought a cappella. The progression eventually withdraws until out of sight, leaving behind a trace of wisdom. 

Bryce uses a mixer, SP-404SX, percussion and MicroKorg; Brian plays soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, OP-1, and electronics.

Limited edition of 50 cassettes available exclusively from Commend. Released on July 12, 2018.

HERE003 - Bryce & Brian - Side B - Excerpt

HERE003 - Bryce & Brian - Side A - Excerpt

"full/new" is an expression of mutual planetary motion. Drawing a school of listeners to the floor of Commend’s relatively small interior on a late July Sunday afternoon in 2018, Emily A. Sprague and Lightbath (aka Bryan Noll) provided an hour of aqueous reflections that whispered with the trees outside on Forsyth street and tempered the activity of the surrounding island. 

Frequent collaborators, Sprague and Noll have been traveling some years on the same light ship through music, friendship, darkness, and spiritual joy, sailing not only the same creative waters of improvised ambient music but also of deeper life events, providing support and connection. full/new represents the cosmic encounter of these two amongst friends, their complementary sets in healing ceremony, celebration and reunion. 

To begin, Lightbath (in collaboration with a plant via the MIDI Sprout) daubs an arc of floaty melodics, chalky auras and affecting chimes into space. Nurtured by Noll’s composer-gardner spirit, “full” manifests a magnetic kineticism as person and machine travel together exchanging ideas in turn, flowing with the motion and change of the tides. An articulation of weightless abundance, “full” is balanced by the complementary piece “The Hermit”, a seven-minute piece recorded six days before the event using the same configuration of modules. Noll describes “The Hermit” as a meditation on one zone while its dynamic sibling, “full” is a stream of consciousness journey through multiple. 

If “full” portrays voluptuous movement, “new” is its accompanying voice of possibility and renewal. Sprague pulls listeners into a thin cocoon of reverie, swayed gently by arpeggios in positive and negative acceleration. An interlude of rustling, trickling, bird calls and the occasional tapping signals the frolicking of polyphonic melodies over a swelling, sonorous bass. The final movement stills out into a sanguine solitude, leaving us with a single, extended note. 

Mastered by Andrew Osterhoudt, "full/new" will be presented as a limited run of cassettes in hand numbered cases as part of our Commend Here series, which captures the magical moments of select Commend events. Released Tuesday, February 26. 

https://shop.commendnyc.com/products/here004-lightbath-emily-a-sprague-full-new

HERE004 - Lightbath - "full" - Excerpt

"full/new" is an expression of mutual planetary motion. Drawing a school of listeners to the floor of Commend’s relatively small interior on a late July Sunday afternoon in 2018, Emily A. Sprague and Lightbath (aka Bryan Noll) provided an hour of aqueous reflections that whispered with the trees outside on Forsyth street and tempered the activity of the surrounding island.

Frequent collaborators, Sprague and Noll have been traveling some years on the same light ship through music, friendship, darkness, and spiritual joy, sailing not only the same creative waters of improvised ambient music but also of deeper life events, providing support and connection. full/new represents the cosmic encounter of these two amongst friends, their complementary sets in healing ceremony, celebration and reunion. 

To begin, Lightbath (in collaboration with a plant via the MIDI Sprout) daubs an arc of floaty melodics, chalky auras and affecting chimes into space. Nurtured by Noll’s composer-gardner spirit, “full” manifests a magnetic kineticism as person and machine travel together exchanging ideas in turn, flowing with the motion and change of the tides. An articulation of weightless abundance, “full” is balanced by the complementary piece “The Hermit”, a seven-minute piece recorded six days before the event using the same configuration of modules. Noll describes “The Hermit” as a meditation on one zone while its dynamic sibling, “full” is a stream of consciousness journey through multiple.

If “full” portrays voluptuous movement, “new” is its accompanying voice of possibility and renewal. Sprague pulls listeners into a thin cocoon of reverie, swayed gently by arpeggios in positive and negative acceleration. An interlude of rustling, trickling, bird calls and the occasional tapping signals the frolicking of polyphonic melodies over a swelling, sonorous bass. The final movement stills out into a sanguine solitude, leaving us with a single, extended note.

Mastered by Andrew Osterhoudt, "full/new" will be presented as a limited run of cassettes in hand numbered cases as part of our Commend Here series, which captures the magical moments of select Commend events. Released Tuesday, February 26.

https://shop.commendnyc.com/products/here004-lightbath-emily-a-sprague-full-new

HERE004 - Emily A. Sprague - "new" - Excerpt

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