Available as a free download from: http://drowning.cc/drone-doom-downloads/aidan-baker-a-sun-amissa-scarpe-sensee/

Modern classical drone on viola and three guitars. This is the first collaboration release between guitar drone equilibrist Aidan Baker (of Nadja, ARC et. al.) and A-Sun Amissa (of Glissando, The Rustle Of The Stars, Tomorrow We Sail et. al.) despite the two projects have completed two European tours together.

The recording was made in France and consists of a single take of all utilized instruments being performed in delicate coherence. The result is a bleak tangible atmosphere for both the weary and the restless.

AIDAN BAKER & A-SUN AMISSA - Scarpe Sensée

Taken from the album 'You Stood Up For Victory, We Stood Up For Less' (2013 - Gizeh Records).

www.gizehrecords.com/gzh44.html

A-SUN AMISSA - Part Two

'Struck Down by Death at the Moment of Glory' performed by Richard Knox (gtr, screwdriver, bow), Angela Chan (viola) and Florence Fawcett (Cello).

A-Sun Amissa : 'Struck Down by Death at the Moment of Glory'

http://www.therustleofthestars.com

'THE RUSTLE OF THE STARS'

A music related concept by Richard Knox and Frédéric D. Oberland.

450 km from the arctic circle, 'The Rustle of the Stars' is a phenomenon of austere beauty, a barely audible noise that occurs when the draught from human breath causes multiple collisions among the ice micro-crystals in the air.

///

We met on tour when performing in Europe with our respective bands Glissando and FareWell Poetry. We had beautiful times, drinking and talking our common grounds whilst some simple ideas formed in our minds: to compose an album together. To imagine a musical passage through the North Pole explorer diaries. To ask some people and some friends to participate. To record the project in a church. To act quickly.

We began to work at our homes in November 2010, In Paris (FR) and in Leeds (UK), with electric guitars, a bunch of pedals, piano, dulcimer, organ, crystal glasses, bows and field recordings, sending and adding ideas together to the tracks, trying to find a global organic sound.

We met in Leeds two months later at the beginning of 2011 to record in the St Margaret of Antioch Church, using a 'wall of sound' process in some of the tracks and arranging / recording the string parts you will hear in the music.

We would like to think of this album as a polar journey to the ends of the earth through the arctic sea. We kept in mind the first polar expeditions,  Edgar Allan Poe's Dream-Land, the ships trapped or crushed by ice, the point of no-return, the minds sinking, the attempt on the Pole ending in disaster, the quest of the Northwest Passage, Erebus & Terror, the Mercy Bay, Mangazeya, Charles Francis Hall, Beechey Island, the Midnight sun and the Polar night.

///

All tracks composed, recorded and mixed between Leeds (Cloud Blunt Moon, St. Margaret of Antioch church) & Paris (Magnum Diva) by Richard Knox & Frédéric D. Oberland during the Winter 2010/2011. Recording assistance in St. Margaret of Antioch by Tim Hay.

Frédéric D. Oberland :
piano, electric guitar, field recordings, harmonium, dulcimer, crystal glass, drones, slide, chimes, bowed glockenspiel, crackle, analog electronics

Richard Knox :
electric guitar, drones, screwdriver, bowed cymbal, bowed glockenspiel, field recordings, companion organ

Angela Chan :
viola, cello, choir

& guests, per order of appearance
David Ramsay : violin
Elly May Irving : choir
Matt Clark : ghost narration
Tim Hay : stompbox
Jayne Amara Ross : Super 8 projector sound

Song arrangements by Richard Knox & Frédéric D. Oberland
Strings arrangements by Richard Knox, Frédéric D. Oberland & Angela Chan

The Rustle of the Stars - 'The Wreck of Hope' (Alternate Ambient Version)

A live excerpt of 'I Lower My Eyes' from the basement sessions.

http://www.slowsecret.com

A-Sun Amissa - I Lower My Eyes (live in the basement - an excerpt)

The Gatherer

A-Sun Amissa - Jason Molina's Blues

A-Sun Amissa return with The Gatherer, their first release since 2013 and a debut for Belgium-based label Consouling Sounds.

Led by Richard Knox (Shield Patterns, The Rustle of the Stars, Gizeh Records) and featuring a wide array of collaborators, The Gatherer is a sonically different beast to the band’s previous releases. The sound is denser and the free-dark-jazz elements of previous outing You Stood Up For Victory, We Stood Up For Less (Gizeh, 2013) are expanded upon. Thick, subtle, reverberating drones underpin the four tracks found here but the palette is expanded. Electronic beats are featured for the first time, field recordings flit in and out and the band as a whole push into new, heavier territories with melodic saxophone and clarinet motifs intertwining and leading the way.

Collaboration is key here and The Gatherer sees a host of fine musicians involved, including; Aidan Baker (Nadja), Claire Brentnall (Shield Patterns), Angela Chan (Tomorrow We Sail. Lanterns on the Lake), Aaron Martin (From the Mouth of the Sun), David McLean (Gnod, Tombed Vision Records), Frédéric D. Oberland (The Rustle of the Stars, Oiseaux Tempête, FareWell Poetry, FOUDRE!), Owen Pegg (Hundred Year Old Man), Colin H. Van Eeckhout (Amenra, CHVE). Each one bringing something unique to the table, each one carefully marking the record with their own vision and sound. Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Oathbreaker etc) mastered the record to 2” tape at his Atomic Garden studio in San Francisco.

The intent is signalled early on as Colossus Survives opens with droning saxophone notes, accompanied soon after with hypnotic electronic beats before exploding into a free-jazz workout with clarinet, saxophone and viola all uniting to form an overwhelming noise. Thick guitar tones introduce Anodyne Nights For Somnolent Strangers before it subsumes into an inextricable world of droning strings and Aidan Baker’s hushed vocals. The delicate and ponderous viola introduction on Jason Molina’s Blues sweeps you gently along before the saxophone creeps in and takes over in the album’s centrepiece. The track then begins to collapse and disintegrate with new sounds entering and falling away with visceral, disorientating regularity. Finally, The Recapitulation completes this quartet of compositions with an altogether more haunting, menacing tone. Trance-like electronics draw you in before Colin H. Van Eeckhout’s meditative vocal delivery, coupled with evocative saxophone and clarinet, collide to form a seductive conclusion to The Gatherer.

CREDITS:
• Aidan Baker + vocal • flute
• Claire Brentnall + clarinet
• Angela Chan + viola • vocal
• Colin H. Van Eeckhout + vocal • hurdy-gurdy
• Richard Knox + electric gtr • field recordings • electronics • processing   & fx
• Aaron Martin + cello • singing bowl
• David McLean + saxophone
• Frédéric D. Oberland + electric gtr • piano Gaveau • mellotron • hurdy-gurdy • pocket piano • processing & fx
• Owen Pegg + electric gtr • processing & fx

A-SUN AMISSA - The Recapitulation

Remix by A-Sun Amissa of 'Kami' by Ten. Released on limited edition CD as part of the Crow Versus Crow 'zine on March 26th, sold at a show that A-Sun Amissa and Ten played together in Halifax. 

Each band was invited to remix each other to accompany the 'zine.


Kami - by Ten (A-Sun Amissa Remix edited version)

Taken from the 'Beneath the Heavy Tides' EP - released by Hibernate Records as a limited edition 'postcard'.

Now available to download from the Gizeh Store.

"a clandestine sound-world of scrapes and creaks that plays like a sonic transcription of an Edgar Allen Poe or H.P. Lovecraft story at its creepiest. Oppressive and disturbing, the EP material plunges deeply into its torture chamber."
TEXTURA

"a pitch dark series of drones that weave and wrap around one another like rival helicoid dragon necks and eventually loom out of the cacophony of industrial percussion (think old pipes, scraped sheet metal and broke-down factory run-amoks…) to become the most prevalent element before succumbing to what sounds like a great slice of sharp steel scything slowly across cold concrete. It’s a gripping, evocative piece of work filled with foreboding and menace." FOXY DIGITALIS

A-SUN AMISSA - Hexe

Taken from the album 'You Stood Up For Victory, We Stood Up For Less' released on Gizeh Records in March 2013

Recorded at Cloud Blunt Moon and City #1, Leeds in October & November 2012.
Mixed by Richard Knox. Mastered by James Plotkin
Photography by Frédéric D. Oberland. Layout & Design by Richard Knox

Richard Knox [guitars/field recordings] . Angela Chan [viola/vocals/piano]
with: Gareth Davis [bass-clarinet] . Owen Pegg [guitars]

A-SUN AMISSA - Part One (edit)

Taken from the album 'The World Without Us' release on Gizeh Records in November 2013.

PERFORMERS:
Elly May Irving (voice, piano)
Richard Knox (gtr, organ, drones, field recordings, piano, voice, drums)
Angela Chan (cello, viola, violin, glockenspiel, erhu)
Lidwine (voice, harp)
Frederic D. Oberland (reed organ, harmonium, bells, space echo, bowed pantophone, fender rhodes)
Aaron Martin (cello, bowed banjo, bowl)
Tim Hay (gtr, bass, voice)
Paul Elam (gtr)
Alistair Hay (drums)

Mastered by Nils Frahm

ARTWORK:
Photography / Layout / Design by Richard Knox & Kate Schofield

GLISSANDO - Still II

Richard Knox (b. 1980) is a musician, composer and artist living and working in Manchester, UK. Knox is a founding member of several ambient, modern-classical, drone based endeavors since 2000 including; Glissando, A-Sun Amissa, The Rustle of the Stars and solo project Of Thread & Mist. More recently Knox has also been involved and performed live with Shield Patterns. He also formed and is still currently running the independent record label Gizeh Records. 

slowsecret

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