Name: Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? (Chicago) by Tartakov
Duration: 3 min 4 s
Description: I'm sharing this in honor of daylight savings time.

I'm sharing this in honor of daylight savings time.

Daniel Johnston Rarities:  WFMU 1991 Marathon Premium Cassette

Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?  (Chicago)

Having first met in 1991, music photographer STEVE GULLICK and JAMES JOHNSTON, founder of Gallon Drunk, began blurring the boundaries between audio and visual in 2004 when they formed their own band, '...bender'. They’ve maintained the habit ever since, with Gullick subsequently founding Tenebrous Liar and Johnston pursuing a career, alongside his work with PJ Harvey and a tenure in Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, as an acclaimed visual artist and painter.
 
After working together on an art show in late 2019, the idea of making music again immediately resurfaced. Without any firm strategy, Johnston and Gullick began recording, unprompted, drawing upon a shared love of noise, folk, and classical. After the first tracks began to evolve, however, they knew they’d unearthed something compelling and fresh, not to mention unexpectedly mysterious. This became WE TRAVEL TIME.

The result is a deceptively crafted album that slowly reveals – and, more importantly, embraces – beauty in its cracks. Piano, voice, violin and guitar create a drifting haze, with the focus on these acoustic elements forging an imagined soundtrack which offers echoes of Big Star, Nico, Lee Hazlewood and Palace Brothers, as well as the gentle, haunting influence of contemporary minimal classical. Ambient sounds – birds, rain, cars, clocks, distant voices – also drift in and out, melting into the music’s fabric via windows left open during the early 2020 heatwave. WE TRAVEL TIME, nonetheless, resists definition, remaining enigmatically timeless. 

Made with an intimacy and agenda-free approach that encouraged experimentation, WE TRAVEL TIME delivers a continuous stream of surprises. Fragments of songs take unexpected turns, guided by choirs of voices; the succinct 'When I'm Down', steered by Steve Gullick's voice, flows into the hypnotic swell of 'Big Star Falls', where Johnston's strings and layered vocals take the lead. Its songs boast an unadorned fragility, raw and real, with string-led pieces looser and more ethereal, but each displays a singular emotional depth made all the more powerful by their understatement and ambiguity, like the creaking atmosphere of an animated folk tale. 

Further emphasising the album’s unique voice, the spirit of intimate collaboration carries right through to WE TRAVEL TIME’s artwork, as well as an animated video for ‘Stormy Sea'. Both blend Gullick's film and photography with Johnston's art, and a special limited edition of the album will also include a book of Johnston's illustrations, used in Gullick’s 'Stormy Sea' video.
 
The result of a mutual trust developed over time, and of working with only music in mind, WE TRAVEL TIME is a strange, spellbinding, beautiful album. Carpe diem.

WE TRAVEL TIME is released by God Unknown on 26/02/2021.

All songs written, arranged and recorded by James Johnston and Steve Gullick

James Johnston: Violin, voice, organ, piano, guitar, banjo, autoharp. 
Steve Gullick: Voice, guitar, piano, organ, harmonica, harmonium.

Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? (Chicago)

Tartakov

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