Based on Piano Trio nr. 2 Andante con Moto
Composed by Franz Schubert (*1827)

"Epicycle" is out worldwide on figureight records October 13th.

Pre-order the album as 180g limited edition vinyl/digital download here:
www.gyda.bandcamp.com

www.figureightrecords.com

Epicycle

Gyda Valtysdottir - Opus 100

Fovea is the 1st single off Úlfur's "Arborescence" - out this fall via figureight.

Engineered, mixed and produced by Randall Dunn 
Recorded in two different locations by Randall Dunn and Alex Somers 
Guitars and bass performed by Skúli Sverrisson 
Percussion by Greg Fox 
Written and arranged by Úlfur Hansson

www.figureightrecords.com
www.ulfurhansson.com

Úlfur - Fovea

Based on Two Studies of Ancient Greek Scale by Harry Partch *1946

Live in Reykjavík cathedral: https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=H1uOGZw6ypw

"Epicycle" is out worldwide on figureight records October 13th. 

www.figureightrecords.com

Gyda Valtysdottir - Ancient Modes I & II

Arborescence is the 2nd single off Úlfur's "Arborescence" - out Nov 3 via figureight.

www.figureightrecords.com
www.ulfurhansson.com

Arborescence

Úlfur - Arborescence

Grey Mcmurray - I Hear Your Voice

“Sublimely odd” - New York Magazine

NYC singer, guitarist and producer Grey Mcmurray -- co-leader of the Tongues in Trees trio with Samita Sinha and Sunny Jain, and of the duo itsnotyouitsme with celebrated NYC composer Caleb Burhans. -- releases his first solo album Stay Up through Shahzad Ismaily’s figureight records on September 20th, 2019. 

Thoroughly blooded as a sideman to musical giants -- Grey has worked with the likes of Gil-Scott Heron, Tyondai Braxton, Alarm Will Sound, Beth Orton, ACME, Colin Stetson, Ali Sethi, Sam Amidon and John Cale among others -- Stay Up represents an artist emboldened by musical heritage and a songwriting voice refined, singular and mesmerizing. The album is uniquely expressive, ranging from sweetly melodic passages reflecting the traditional cast of a singer-songwriter, to huge open plains of chord-washes and chorus, to dense, dark, acute dissonance, all composed and performed by a master of his instrument.

Grey’s guitar playing - sought after by so many luminaries - is of course a cornerstone here. More than just a backdrop for the message, the guitar often becomes the clearest voice in the room. Unshowy, unpretentious, but eloquent in his storytelling, Grey uses the instrument in the gentlest ways. Lead single “Wanting Ways” combines subtle chords with a constant bassdrum beat, punctuated with a glorious piano hook, secret, fizzing synthesiser and the tenderness of Grey’s effortless tenor. The guitar almost becomes overlooked, such is the precision of its placement. 

It is evident throughout Stay Up that this record is the work of a highly skilled musician, a songwriter who has already crossed the void and returned with an intuitive, learned musicality, poetical and ease with a guitar, but perhaps troubled elsewhere. “Music is the only relative activity I have to feeling heartbroken, heartful or revelatory,” Grey writes. “In a way, these are ten versions of one song. In another way, everything fell apart, and I wanted to make an altar.“

Stay Up is released on heavyweight vinyl with artwork by DM Stith in Fall 2019, with accompanying live performances due to be scheduled.

Grey Mcmurray - Wanting Ways

J.R. Bohannon - Paradise Kentucky

Pre-order here:
https://jrbohannon.bandcamp.com/album/dusk

Brooklyn-based fingerstyle guitar player J.R. Bohannon announces his beautiful debut album Dusk, released through Shahzad Ismaily’s figureight records in November 2019. The record represents a deep, intuitive study of the guitar in the American folk tradition imbued with influences from minimalism, Latin, & Greek musics.

A student in American styles and - from his time living in Brazil - fado and modinha guitar music, J.R. Bohannon’s compositions for 6 and 12-string guitar sit somewhere between the dulcet, pastoral bliss of American pioneers such as Leo Kottke or Robbie Basho, the passionate fluidity of Gabor Szabo, and the Southern charm of Ry Cooder. He marries this with a love of American minimalism - greats like Philip Glass and Terry Riley as well as modern acts Tortoise and Gastr Del Sol - and with this multitude of inspirations his own compositions take a form carefully nuanced, both spacious and fluid.

Dusk is the result of many years of writing. While Bohannon’s debut EP Recôncavo (released April 2019 on Phantom Limb) introduced a new artist with great ability, Dusk lands exactly on his sound. The years of performing with virtuosic traditional bluegrass and folk musicians, with Merge Records’ Torres and NYC supergroup Gold Dime have refined his skill to incisive perfection, imbibing a luminant lyricism into his instrumental guitar playing. Bohannon was determined not to write “just another acoustic guitar album,” which is starkly evident in Dusk. Opening track “Reflections of an American Dream” sings with beautiful mysticism, melodies interlacing about the jangling of open strings and the ghosts of great America past, with the open road, the dusty trail, the mountainous expanse.

J.R. Bohannon is a native of Louisville, Kentucky - a city and musical scene internationally mythified for its contribution to the post-rock and post-hardcore scenes of the late 80’s and early 90’s, as well as the rich history of Appalachian folk cultures on which its musical foundation is built. Bohannon writes that location is significant in his composition. The emptiness and desolation of Kentucky’s landscape contributes greatly, as does the appreciation gained for it since leaving. “It’s a healthy pining,” Bohannon says. “Something I appreciate the value of, instead of feeling pain about.” This nostalgia is also woven into the record’s artwork - a lovingly authentic homage to 70’s rock and country records, perfectly executed by designer Darryl Norsen.

J.R. Bohannon has to-date performed onstage with such luminaries as Pharoah Sanders, Steve Gunn, Ryley Walker, Martin Courtney and Jim White. Dusk is released worldwide on limited vinyl and digital formats on November 1st 2019.

J.R. Bohannon - Reflections of an American Dream

“[Wieselman has] absolute command of his instrument”
Musically Speaking



Seminal NYC multi-reedist Doug Wieselman releases his mesmerising From Water LP through Shahzad Ismaily’s figureight records.

Wieselman has performed with superlative greats (including the Lounge Lizards, Lou Reed, Yoko Ono, Bill Frisell, Iron & Wine, Laurie Anderson, Tricky, Martha Wainwright, Antony and the Johnsons, CocoRosie) and contributed significantly to the NYC Downtown scene over the past three decades. He is described, by NYC Jazz Record, as “a vital force in the New York music scene”. 

Yet his debut solo recordings offer a surprise. The minimalism, patience, and subtlety here is delicately formed from featherlight interweaving lines of soft, virtuosic clarinet: Wieselman expertly eschewing the larger scale arrangements of his musical background. The resulting album - From Water - sits somewhere between the refined intelligence of American minimalism and the undecorated purity of ambient music. Like water, there are multiple glorious moments where its currents coincide and reveal new contrasts and hues, deeply embedded within the harmony.

This is music primarily made from melodies that I have heard from bodies of water – ocean beaches, streams, hot springs as well as wind. These melodies sound to me like a chorus of exuberant voices. Each melody is specific to the place. If I return to a beach, even after many years, I hear the same song. I think this has something to do with what the earth can tell us, if only we can take the time and patience to listen. This is an attempt to share what I have been hearing, through the filter of my perception, from water.

The craft is important too: made from intimately close recordings of loops and solo lines, using vintage, high-grade instruments and the now-unusual Albert system - an outmoded playing style popular in Russian and Turkish folk music - the album was recorded by Shahzad Ismaily, and mixed by the masterful Bryce Goggin at Trout Recording (Herbie Hancock, Pavement, Antony and the Johnsons) through a vintage Neve board and all-analogue outboard gear. Doug subsequently explored several means of vinyl production in search of a method that preserved the purity of the clarinet’s tones.

Doug Wieselman - Pacific 1

Doug Wieselman - Pacific 2

Gliese 581

“Ryan Sawyer [coaxes] rolls, shimmers, sand storms and other electrifying sounds from his kit...Exceptional...Kaleidoscopic.”
New York Times


New York’s far-reaching drummer Ryan Sawyer releases his debut solo LP, a unique collection of percussion-led cover songs, Your Heart Will Be Your Skin through Shahzad Ismaily’s figureight records in July 2020.

Years of peerage in underground and jazz scenes with enormously high-grade collaborators has informed Ryan’s performance and arrangements, helping to shape the output of a supremely talented musician into a rare channel of vast textures, dynamics and moods formed from drumkit alone.

It may be surprising to note that Your Heart Will Be Your Skin is Ryan’s debut solo release. A highly expressive and exploratory record, Ryan approaches the compositions of other musicians with a singular approach, reducing the material to raw forms of drumkit and voice only. This allows not only for a foundation of Ryan’s superlative percussive abilities (virtuosic, powerful, explosive yet always elegant), but also for a deep psychological dive into each track’s lyrical subject matter. Ryan writes that his performance of these songs offers an insight into mental states “misunderstood, under-examined, shamed.” Made famous by Blondie, “Hanging on The Telephone” is raw and skeletal in Sawyer’s hands; “You’re Dead”, originally by cult 60’s singer-songwriter and Dusty Springfield collaborator Norma Tanega, retains its visceral protest-music energy, but its form is entirely new.

Covering material as diverse as Devo, Chuck Berry, Sonic Youth, Captain Beefheart, Neil Young and several more - and tackling these new arrangements with just as broad a delivery - Your Heart Will Be Your Skin acts as a reformed American songbook. It roots out the experimental, innovative personalities of its source material, and wears its heart externally, openly.

Born in 1976 in San Antonio, Texas, Ryan started playing drums at 11, learning his craft through an early exposure to not only rock and jazz but also the colloquial conjunto, zydeco, and punk rock musics of his home town. He moved to New York in 1997 to pursue his interest in improvised music. Ryan has played alongside Marshall Allen, Boredoms, Thurston Moore, TV On The Radio, Gang Gang Dance, Nick Zinner, Rhys Chatham among countless others. He joined a fledgling At The Drive-In as a teenager and played on their debut LP Acrobatic Tenement. He also writes and performs for dance and other extra-disciplinary forms, including Anna Sperber’s acclaimed ballet Prize, performed in NYC in 2016.

Your Heart Will Be Your Skin was recorded in Istanbul by master producer Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Six Organs of Admittance, Marissa Nadler, Wolves in the Throne Room, Boris, Anna Von Hausswolff, Akron/Family, Oren Ambarchi, Eyvind Kang, The Cave Singers, Earth etc. etc.).

Hanging On The Telephone [Jack Lee]

Ryan Sawyer - Ituri Rain On Tin [Sonic Youth]

https://marielroberts.bandcamp.com/album/armament

“One of the most adventurous figures on New York’s new music scene—one with a thorough grounding in classical tradition but a ravenous appetite for and tireless discipline in new work.” Bandcamp

Celebrated NY cellist Mariel Roberts releases a rare album of new improvised solo works, recorded with key NY experimental head Patrick Higgins at the mixing desk and released on Shahzad Ismaily’s figureight records.

Armament was created as a series of unedited improvised pieces for cello and pedals, reflecting not only Mariel Roberts’ extraordinary abilities as a cellist, but also a profoundly unique creative voice responding to a deeply troubled environment. “The tone of the material, and the title, reflect what was going on both globally and personally for me at the time,” Mariel writes. “The idea of an "armament" is a collection of weapons, and when I chose that title I was thinking about how nearly everything feels weaponized right now- things that should not be weapons are being used as such.”

Harshness and fragility are key elements to Roberts’ music. While Armament represents a dark, intense experience, its extended-technique cello performances sounding alien, thunderous, disturbing and often like anything but cello, beneath the controlled, distressed, nihilistic miasma lies a very human heart. Foggy, gloomy passages roll by with gaseous coldness, sometimes pricking the ear with minute insect chirrups, sometimes gathering into powerful, momentous tidal waves of sound. But thematic throughout the album are moments that reveal a longing for peace amidst the chaos, rewarding a deep and close listen. Contrasting elements are set against each other to push and explore, resulting in minimal, spare near-silence swallowed into overwhelming black holes of noise (such as in “Hoard”), and explosive, painful ferocity suddenly yielding to plaintive, elegiac melancholy (such as in “Interlude”). “Armament can be perceived as both static and full of motion,” Mariel offers. 

Armament was recorded in Sao Paulo, Brazil and mixed by downtown NY mainstay Patrick Higgins at his analogue specialist studio Future Past. Higgins is described by the NY Times as "one of the strongest avant-garde [musicians] in New York", and his expert attention to the close details of Roberts’ music is crucial here. Inherently multifaceted, the album’s radical gravity and depth of meaning can be seen to run concurrently with the early, avant-garde expressionism of musicians such as Fluxus and John Cage. However, its moments of light link it to the contemporary ambient minimalism of Tim Hecker and William Basinski. A classical player by training, Roberts notes the influence of Olivier Messaien and Gerard Grisey, while the recursive microsound of Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto’s collaboration records could also be taken as allies.

Mariel Roberts - Arrow [single Edit]

https://bernicebernice.bandcamp.com/

Bernice is the experimental pop vessel of musician/songwriter Robin Dann and her longtime collaborators Thom Gill (keyboards, guitar), Philippe Melanson (e-percussion and drums), Daniel Fortin (bass) and Felicity Williams (voice). Together and apart, they have performed with Martha Wainwright, Andy Shauf, Lido Pimienta, Bahamas, KNOWER, and Beverly Glenn Copeland among many others, which led to them being referred in the press as “Toronto’s ever-evolving backing band.”
In their own right, however, they have repeatedly proved to be far more than the sum of their considerable parts. Bernice’s Polaris Prize-nominated 2018 LP Puff: In the air without a shape received major international attention, described as an “analytical, self-dissecting monument to ephemerality” by The New York Times, and “a fascinating musical conversation” that blends pop and R&B influences with C86 aesthetics by Pitchfork, alongside high praise from outlets like NPR, FADER, and Stereogum, and many more.
Nearly three years on from that release (for Bernice a rapid turnaround by comparison to the seven-year gap between their 2011 debut and Puff), the band return with their third full-length, Eau de Bonjourno, out March 5th from Telephone Explosion and figureeight records. It marks their first collaboration with producer Shahzad Ismaily, the acclaimed multi-instrumentalist who has worked with artists as varied as Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, Iggy Pop, John Zorn, and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. While their genre reconstruction remains distinctly Bernice, Dann’s lyrics bring a newfound focus to storytelling in the present moment, compassionately meeting ourselves where we are, and finding joy in spaces that are familiar but ever changing.
Eau de Bonjourno, according to Dann, “openly plays with the shape of a pop song,” drawing on the band members’ backgrounds in jazz, subverting rhythmic formulas, and resting in grooves that sit just outside of predictable. Instead of letting instruments take extended solos, the tone is set on opener “Groove Elation” with brief blurts of synthesized sax, patient passages of space, or clusters of beats, tenderly held together by Dann and Williams’ intimate vocals. The album’s sound is experimental in its truest definition, chopped up like musique concrète and then delicately placed back together with the loving touch of a scrapbook collagist.
“We have an impulse to open doors that you might not expect, and that translates from groove to melody to lyric,” says Dann. “Phil and Thom have this strong aversion to building a beat that sits there in front of you and does exactly what you expect it to do. We come out of so many musical traditions and are trying to make something that’s not a direct descendent of any of them. We’re trying to make the music that feels like us right now.”

Bernice - Groove Elation

Eau De Bonjourno
by bernice

released March 5, 2021

Nearly three years on from their last release (for Bernice a rapid turnaround by comparison to the seven-year gap between their 2011 debut and Puff), the band return with their third full-length, Eau de Bonjourno, out March 5th from Telephone Explosion and figureeight records. It marks their first collaboration with producer Shahzad Ismaily, the acclaimed multi-instrumentalist who has worked with artists as varied as Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, Iggy Pop, John Zorn, and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. While their genre reconstruction remains distinctly Bernice, Dann’s lyrics bring a newfound focus to storytelling in the present moment, compassionately meeting ourselves where we are, and finding joy in spaces that are familiar but ever changing.

Eau de Bonjourno, according to Dann, “openly plays with the shape of a pop song,” drawing on the band members’ backgrounds in jazz, subverting rhythmic formulas, and resting in grooves that sit just outside of predictable. Instead of letting instruments take extended solos, the tone is set on opener “Groove Elation” with brief blurts of synthesized sax, patient passages of space, or clusters of beats, tenderly held together by Dann and Williams’ intimate vocals. The album’s sound is experimental in its truest definition, chopped up like musique concrète and then delicately placed back together with the loving touch of a scrapbook collagist.

Bernice - It's Me, Robin

Taken from Armament:
https://marielroberts.bandcamp.com/album/armament

Armament was created as a series of unedited improvised pieces for cello and pedals, reflecting not only Mariel Roberts’ extraordinary abilities as a cellist, but also a profoundly unique creative voice responding to a deeply troubled environment. “The tone of the material, and the title, reflect what was going on both globally and personally for me at the time,” Mariel writes. “The idea of an "armament" is a collection of weapons, and when I chose that title I was thinking about how nearly everything feels weaponized right now- things that should not be weapons are being used as such.”

Mariel Roberts - Hoard [single edit]

Order here:
figureight.bandcamp.com

Nearly three years on from that release (for Bernice a rapid turnaround by comparison to the seven-year gap between their 2011 debut and Puff), the band return with their third full-length, Eau de Bonjourno, out March 5th from Telephone Explosion and figureeight records. It marks their first collaboration with producer Shahzad Ismaily, the acclaimed multi-instrumentalist who has worked with artists as varied as Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, Iggy Pop, John Zorn, and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. While their genre reconstruction remains distinctly Bernice, Dann’s lyrics bring a newfound focus to storytelling in the present moment, compassionately meeting ourselves where we are, and finding joy in spaces that are familiar but ever changing.

Eau de Bonjourno, according to Dann, “openly plays with the shape of a pop song,” drawing on the band members’ backgrounds in jazz, subverting rhythmic formulas, and resting in grooves that sit just outside of predictable. Instead of letting instruments take extended solos, the tone is set on opener “Groove Elation” with brief blurts of synthesized sax, patient passages of space, or clusters of beats, tenderly held together by Dann and Williams’ intimate vocals. The album’s sound is experimental in its truest definition, chopped up like musique concrète and then delicately placed back together with the loving touch of a scrapbook collagist.

Bernice - We Choose You

Nearly three years on from that release (for Bernice a rapid turnaround by comparison to the seven-year gap between their 2011 debut and Puff), the band return with their third full-length, Eau de Bonjourno, out March 5th from Telephone Explosion and figureeight records. It marks their first collaboration with producer Shahzad Ismaily, the acclaimed multi-instrumentalist who has worked with artists as varied as Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, Iggy Pop, John Zorn, and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. While their genre reconstruction remains distinctly Bernice, Dann’s lyrics bring a newfound focus to storytelling in the present moment, compassionately meeting ourselves where we are, and finding joy in spaces that are familiar but ever changing.

Eau de Bonjourno, according to Dann, “openly plays with the shape of a pop song,” drawing on the band members’ backgrounds in jazz, subverting rhythmic formulas, and resting in grooves that sit just outside of predictable. Instead of letting instruments take extended solos, the tone is set on opener “Groove Elation” with brief blurts of synthesized sax, patient passages of space, or clusters of beats, tenderly held together by Dann and Williams’ intimate vocals. The album’s sound is experimental in its truest definition, chopped up like musique concrète and then delicately placed back together with the loving touch of a scrapbook collagist. 

This project is funded in part by FACTOR, the Government of Canada and Canada’s private radio broadcasters. Ce projet est financé en partie par FACTOR, le gouvernement du Canada et les radiodiffuseurs privés du Canada. www.canada.ca

Popular tracks by figureight