This Half-handed Cloud Christmas song was released in December 2015 on Sam Billen's annual Holiday compilation.  Free download here: http://sambillen.bandcamp.com/track/half-handed-cloud-nativity-costume-2000-years-eve  

Many other Half-handed Cloud holiday songs available on these excellent Familyre Christmas compilations: https://familyrechristmas.bandcamp.com

Nativity Costume (2000 Year's Eve)

NPR's Morning Edition invited listeners to contribute their own take on the Morning Edition theme song.  http://www.npr.org/2016/04/26/467352425/whats-your-take-on-morning-editions-theme  This is Half-handed Cloud's version (June 2016).

John Ringhofer: tape-manipulated instruments recorded on a ½" reel-to-reel tape recorder (tuned hairdryers, bass melodion, glockenspiel, trombone, banjo), bass guitar, Roland SH-09 monophonic analog synthesizer, percussion, hand claps, arrangement (recorded at the Bureau Of Radiophonic Research, Helsinki, Finland.) Brandon Buckner: Drum kit (recorded at Soft Hiss in Hixson, TN, U.S.A.) 



NPR's Morning Edition Theme - Tuned Hairdryer, Tape Manipulation, & Synthesizer #morningeditiontheme

From Half-handed Cloud's "Jiminy Circuits" EP, out December 2016 on Plastiq Musiq.  Available as an eight song vinyl record (+download) from www.plastiqmusiq.com.  Music video with Super-8 film: https://youtu.be/W-g56BkeeVk

Jiminy Circuits (first master)

Antennas Extend

Recorded in March 2015 in Pretoria, South Africa by John Ringhofer (piano, vocals, wood blocks, backpacker guitar, tapes, ancient organ), and in Hixson, TN USA by Brandon Buckner (drum kit, bass guitar) at Soft Hiss. Thanks Brandon! 

Written by George Frideric Handel (1742), and arranged by John. Originally commissioned by Daniel C. Smith. Thanks Daniel and Elin!

Available for a limited time (through Easter 2017) as a FREE download from the Half-handed Cloud Homemade Bandcamp page:

http://halfhandedcloud.bandcamp.com

All They That See Him, Laugh Him To Scorn (from Handel's Messiah)

This song was written by our older son in the Spring of 2016 when he was two, on a drive to a German kindergarten in South Africa.  Now that he's four, we finally completed it in Finland!

I (John) arranged it as a quickly-recorded Half-handed Cloud song to commemorate 2017's Global Beatles Day (Sunday, June 25th).  Our older son (name withheld) sings 0:07-0:15 and at the very end.  Our younger son (age 1) has a spoken cameo at 0:37.  I sing too, and am playing the instruments.  Enjoy!  Happy Beatles Day!

https://www.facebook.com/Globalbeatlesday/

UPDATE: this song is now included on an album called "I Don't Have A Bib."

More songs here: https://halfhandedcloud.bandcamp.com/album/i-dont-have-a-bib

The Beatles by Kid Ringhofer

Part of a project my sons and I worked on this summer (2018), recording songs my family and I wrote spontaneously during the first few years of parenting. This is one of the choruses we sing as we run through our regular routines. The full album is called, "I Don't Have A Bib."

More songs here: https://halfhandedcloud.bandcamp.com/album/i-dont-have-a-bib

Going To The Playground

I made this Palm Sunday song a couple years ago.  

What happened to the cloaks after people laid them (along with palm branches) in the path of Jesus and the colt?  They put them on again, right?  They wore/embodied the path of Christ.  They became little “ways.”

We Wear The Path

The twelfth song on Half-handed Cloud's 2014 LP “Flying Scroll Flight Control,” named “He Can’t Deny Himself,” was first written in January 2011 (the Faithful Sayings project’s second song) and initially titled ““If We Have Died.” The demo version posted here dates from the fall of 2011, during the six months that my wife and I were living in Brussels, Belgium for her first post-doctorate research position.  

It was recorded onto a handheld tape player (using its mic) that was fed into a computer.  Percussion was realized with a cardboard box, a paper envelope, and a wooden chair as a high-hat.  This version rocks a little more than the album version, despite the melodion and backpacker guitar.  

I recorded 19 demos this way during that time in Belgium, and most of them ended up being re-recorded on my reel-to-reel tape machine for “Flying Scroll” later in Berkeley, although some demos of different songs ended up on one of the two “Foiled EPs” on the Half-handed Cloud Homemade Bandcamp page:

https://halfhandedcloud.bandcamp.com

If We Have Died [2011 Multi - Track Demo For ‘He Can’t Deny Himself’]

This is the solo version of "Flea Market Temple," from early 2001's unreleased demo album "Bible Verses With A Bad Name." 

"Bible Verses..." was later re-recorded and became 2005's "Thy Is A Word & Feet Need Lamps," which was released on Asthmatic Kitty Records 15 years ago this week.

More here:
https://half-handedcloud.bandcamp.com/album/thy-is-a-word-feet-need-lamps

And here:
https://asthmatickitty.com/merch/thy-is-a-word-feet-need-lamps/

Flea Market Temple [Early 2001 Demo]

Half-handed Cloud's 2020 Christmas song. Free download here:
https://badgerland.bandcamp.com/album/les-douze-f-tes-de-badgerland-2020

Badgerland 2020

Christmas Hindsight

Pocket-symphony pop sound collage, releasing albums since 1999.

Half-handed Cloud

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