“Goodnight godspeed.”
With a sigh, the lights at Comet Manor commence dimming to darkness, room by room, southbound in succession. Along the path until the last volt vanishes; a skipped stone across the bay, lost in the rings of the Milky Way.
With the world switched off, the search proceeds. The muted forest, the mirrored lake, the moon-hued hills: the ordinary textures of an English countryside flourishing, the morose well of teary eyes in twilight.
With hopeless urgency, dogs following the scent of an unknown. Men follow the dogs. Something trails the men, and their hounds, relentlessly, hidden in the cobalt shadows. A sun’s rays could never know this loss, this place, this pursuant.
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Gem Club is Christopher Barnes, Kristen Drymala, and leva Berberian. In Roses, their beautiful new LP (and follow-up to one of our favorites of 2011) is out as of last week via Hardly Art.
Dreams is an ongoing project where we ask our favorite artists to create a piece of music inspired by a handmade collage.
Sometime in the 1950s a man by the name of Liberado Bartholomew Mastrarrigo found himself at the microphone of a New York City recording studio. The session was his first, it would be his only, and he left that day having recorded two covers. As a token, he had them pressed to a single 78. In the years that followed, Bart would proudly tell his story of that one time he sang “next door to Frank Sinatra”. This man was Victoria’s grandfather.
A few months ago we found the record at her parent’s house. Unbeknownst to Vic, I’ve attempted to rip and restore the songs. They were in rough shape but the graininess has softened a bit (thanks for the help, M. Sage). As a birthday gift today, I’m giving her these along with the Victrola Suite, a short mix with excerpts of said material. And while something this personal is slightly out of character for the site, we’ve decided to share the suite here. At the very least, it can finally lend a larger audience to the fine voice of Mr. Mastrarrigo.
Bartholomew Mastrarrigo – Blue Velvet (Side A)
Ricky Eat Acid – Outside Your House (original/Dream)
Thunderstorm in Mexico (field recording)
Gary Shearston – Faded Streets, Windy Weather
Recycle Culture – NN.1
Bartholomew Mastrarrigo – Please Mr. Sun (Side B)
Future Islands – Little Dreamer
There’s a certain filmic quality to A Touch Of White—tempting to say Hecker-esque in its ability to access the consciousness, both filling and pulling fragments. Credit this to nearly an hour of static and shimmer that swells ever so slightly towards an end: some kind of great, hyper-suspended movement which eventually must crash. Flowers, sliding off that balcony, perhaps.
It’s the second in a series of soundscapes by artist Petar Alargic, who lives in Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia. Thanks to Magnatune for the introduction.