stifling luxury
music and lyrics written,performed, recorded by Isaac Howard, drums by Chris Wallace.

Your not falling in love

A song for Taryn McLaughlin, circa 2000. Phase vocoded cello mapped to a MIDI keyboard. One take live improv.

Industry Is Built on the Backs of the Voiceless

This is a live recording of a performance from July 12, 2002 at subTonic. There was a little show downstairs in the converted wine cellar at Tonic (RIP)in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. If I remember correctly, this performance consisted of two laptop computers running Supercollider version 2. All sounds are triggered algorithmically, using generative sequencers. I attached some sliders to change parameters which gave higher or lower probability to sequence object instantiation. The second half of the performance used a library that was in vogue at the time, taking a sample and cutting it up into short chopped up sequences, also triggered with weighted probability. In retrospect, I like the overall vibe but I realize the randomness, despite being weighted doesn't escape the lack of direction or progression in this type of music. Otherwise, I had a great time. I also had the privilege of using samples by Regina Spektor, before she was a world famous rock star. We met at The Living Room, after she performed. She let me use some raw vocal tracks of a few demos she recorded at a studio in the same building as mine.

Live at subTonic, New York City 12 July 2002

DEBUT ALBUM OUT NOW – AVAILABLE ON CD/LP/DOWNLOAD.

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'GEM' ★★★★ MOJO | 'TRIUMPH' ★★★★ UNCUT | 'VICTORIOUS' – GUARDIAN | 'A VICTORY' – BBC MUSIC
'CELESTIAL' 9/10 – DROWNED IN SOUND | 'OTHERWORLDLY' 7.3 – PITCHFORK | 'SUBLIME' – EXCLAIM
★★★★ SPIEGEL | 'EIN TRIUMPH' – DE:BUG | ★★★★ DE MORGEN | 'EEN PAREL' – FOCUS KNACK | 'PRACHTPLAAT' – GONZO 


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CONTENT: ‘A Winged Victory For The Sullen’ is the first installment of the new collaboration between Stars Of The Lid founder Adam Wiltzie and L.A. composer Dustin O’Halloran. The duo agreed to leave the comfort zone of their home studios and develop the recordings with the help of large acoustic spaces, hunting down a selection of 9ft grand pianos that had the ability to deliver extreme sonic low end. Other traditional instrumentation was used including string quartet, French horn, and bassoon, but always juxtaposed is the sound of drifting guitar washed melodies. The recordings began with one late night session in the famed Grunewald Church in Berlin on a 1950s imperial Bösendorfer piano and strings were added in the historic East Berlin DDR radio studios along the River Spree. One last session on a handmade Fazioli piano in a private studio on the Northern cusp of Italy, before the final mixes took place in a 17th century villa near Ferrara with the assistance of Francesco Donadello. All songs were then processed completely analogue straight to magnetic tape. Their secret to harvesting new melodic structures from the thin air of existence was for the duo to push themselves to dangerous territory, realising that clear thinking at the wrong moment could stifle the compositions. The final result is seven landscapes of harmonic ingemination. In ‘Requiem For The Static King Part One’ – created in memory of the untimely passing of Mark Linkous – they have taken the age-old idea of a string quartet and then shot it out of a cannon to reveal exquisite new levels of sonic bliss. Of the 13 minute track ‘Symphony Pathétique’, Wiltzie says ‘after almost 20 years of struggling to create interesting ambient drone music, I feel like I have finally figured out what I am doing’. Notable guest musicians include Icelandic cellist Hildur Gudnadottir, as well as Erased Tapes label comrade Peter Broderick on violin. A Winged Victory For The Sullen is not a side project – it is the future of the late night record you have always dreamed of.

CONTEXT: On May 24th 2007, in Bologna, Italy, Adam was on tour and playing with the late Mark Linkous & his beloved Sparklehorse, on what would be their final European tour. That night Adam invited friend and colleague Francesco Donadello to see the concert, and Francesco's guest this evening was composer Dustin O'Halloran (Sofia Coppola’s ‘Marie Antoinette’ O.S.T.). Through a strange twist of backstage conversations surrounding passport cache conundrums, and love of Italian gastronomy, a curious friendship began that now has brought forth an offspring of truly curative compositions for the world to savour.

As announced by Pitchfork and Drowned In Sound the self-titled debut album of A Winged Victory For The Sullen will be released worldwide on September 9, 2011 via Erased Tapes Records (except for North America where it will be out on Kranky).

Your not falling in love

isaachoward

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