German sound pioneer Hans-Joachim Roedelius and American composer Tim Story join Erased Tapes as Roedelius & Story with their new album 4 Hands out February 25, 2022.

Pre-save and pre-order it on LP · CD · DL here: https://idol.lnk.to/4hands

4 Hands, an intimate and surreal musical conversation on the piano, is an example of all the warm yet otherworldly beauty that can come from approaching a shared love for a singular instrument from overlapping directions.

Recorded sequentially but on one and the same grand piano, Roedelius laid down a few impromptu piano études in May 2019 whilst visiting his transatlantic friend Story. Tim then learned all their intricate phrasings to add his own parts in the following months. 4 Hands encapsulates rippling minimalistic patterns and delicate, ghostly interactions with surprising harmonic twists. Roedelius’ intuitive and instinctive approach based in improvisation, paired hand in hand with Story’s deliberate distilling of ideas over time, creates two sides of an engaging and thought-provoking conversation that seems to evolve and deepen with each successive listen.

The first single Spirit Clock received its name from Erased Tapes founder Robert Raths, born out of a conversation around timing: “to me this term perfectly describes what’s going on here. There is this invisible bond, this very strong energy between Ach and Tim whenever they make music together that’s still perfectly intact even when they are dimensions apart. This metaphysical intersection of four hands on one and the same mechanical instrument at different times, something so technical yet deeply spiritual, is what fascinates me.”

4 Hands

Spirit Clock

Roedelius & Story - Spirit Clock

By the Ash Tree

Prelude

Taken from the forthcoming album ACTIVE IMAGINATION out 6th May. Pre-order & watch the 16mm music video here: https://ingrv.es/active-imagination-khw-a

Will explains: “Arpy was the very first song to be created for the album and began its conception way back in January 2020, just as I was about to start touring my previous album Paralanguage (and before the pandemic hit). I had bought myself a JX-03 synth to take on the tour, and the first sketches were me basically figuring out how to use it. The guitar was added before I really knew what I was going to play, but I felt a little spark of something in that first take, which remains on the finished track.

From there, the recordings sat on a hard-drive for about 7 months, while I racked my brains on how on earth to finish it. It was after having 3 vivid and consecutive dreams that Summer (whilst trying to teach myself how to lucid dream), when I woke up and realised that the lyrics and vocals had just written themselves.”

http://humanchorus.com

Active Imagination

Arpy

Pre-order

Will Samson - Arpy

Grow Slow, Grow Deep is the second single from We Dream of Eden's upcoming full-length album Garden Heart, releasing 20th May 2022 on Echoes Blue Music.

An exploration of both springtime and the realities of growing as a person, these two tracks beautifully juxtapose the ‘lightness’ of spring with the depth of inner development.

“These are my musical meditations on the persistent patience needed to grow as an artist and as a person.”
- Kirk Smith, We Dream of Eden

Grow Slow, Grow Deep

We Dream of Eden : Grow Slow, Grow Deep

Here's a diffused ambient piece I made reimagining elements of Mozart's opera 'Così Fan Tutte' (So Do They All). I was interested in exploring material from the original piece and finding relationships between new and old. I was inspired by the idea of giving those elements from the past a new context, shifting them into modernity.

Written by SINK, Mozart
Arranged, Performed, Produced and Mixed by SINK

Mastered by Aneek Thapar

Artwork by Tjitske Oosterholt

Lyrics from Mozart's original opera:
Soave sia il vento,
tranquilla sia l'onda

Gossamer

Erased Tapes are proud to announce the first in a series of Bell Orchestre reissues. The band’s landmark debut album Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light is now streaming everywhere, with the original masters being repressed on vinyl for the first time since its original release in 2005. The vinyl reissue is out January 13 and available to pre-order now.

Formed in 1999 whilst studying in Montreal, the first music Bell Orchestre made was live scores for contemporary dance performances and puppet shows. Looking back at the band’s early years two decades later, drummer Stefan Schneider says: “Everybody was doing random things to pay the rent like working at cafes, busking, cooking at a daycare, making pizzas, teaching kids in China English by telephone at four in the morning. Mostly in our early 20s, Montreal was cheap, a little grungy and there was a vibrant DIY scene. We were all excited about this special chemistry that was felt making music together.”

A few years later, the writing and recording sessions for Recording a Tape... started taking shape. Most of the music was written in Kaveh Nabatian’s family cabin near a lake in remote Vermont in the deep winter. The roads weren’t ploughed, so to get there the group of friends had to cross a frozen lake on foot, carrying the instruments and boxes of food on sleds over snow and ice.

“The first pieces of music that were actually recorded were the field recordings that became the opening, middle and closing of the album. Pietro and I lived together in this loft that was beside the Lachine canal, and at the bottom of our street there was a traffic tunnel that went underneath the canal, and whenever I went walking down there I noticed the incredible acoustics — the sound of cars driving through it was this immense kind of oceanic sound. Pietro and Kaveh just improvised all these slow moving fanfare ideas, just playing together until their instruments got too cold to play and we eventually had to go inside again”, Richard Reed Parry remembers.

When the group entered the now-legendary Montreal studio Hotel2Tango, Arcade Fire were also recording their eponymous debut Funeral there and the two bands had to take turns recording. Due to the growing interest in Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre was put on hold as members of both bands, Parry and Sarah Neufeld, quickly became occupied with Arcade Fire’s busy touring schedule. “The Bell Orchestre album was almost done, but it kind of sat there. We were just sitting on this album that we were really proud of, but we didn't have anyone to pay attention to it” Parry told Pitchfork in 2005. After signing to Rough Trade the same year, the album was released to critical acclaim and despite being overshadowed has since received cult status among fans.

After almost a decade of hiatus, the band signed to Erased Tapes in 2020. Long-time fan and friend of Bell Orchestre and its individual members, label founder Robert Raths was equally excited about them releasing new music and the opportunity to shine more light on their astonishing body of work.

“This record has always had a firm place in the wider Erased Tapes story, because it contributed heavily to some of us connecting online and eventually meeting in person. It is deeply ingrained in my memory of the time when I had just moved to London. I worked across the street from this small record shop called Pure Groove, where I’m pretty sure I picked up a copy based on its intriguing title and a hand-written note of recommendation by the staff.”

“When retouching the artwork files for this reissue, I noticed something I hadn’t noticed before. There is this seismographic disc that’s printed on the labels, which is astonishingly similar to the one that forms the basis for the original Erased Tapes mountain logo drawing by Chris Hernandez from 2007. When I pointed this funny little coincidence out to Richard, he immediately agreed it would be damn nice to highlight this connection,” states Robert Raths.

Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light

Bell Orchestre - Les Lumières Pt. 1

Tour 2023

Orion I

Moyenne corniche

ENDLESS BEAUTY

i'm healing sløwly

If You Ever

MGMT: katie@someonegreatpr.com
PUBLISHING: jenna@fabermusic.com
GENERAL: contact@willsamson.co.uk

Will Samson - Arpy

Will Samson

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