Now available: Dreamwords by Drape

We've been chomping at the bit to release this fantastic work to the masses but, alas, delay, delay has left this waiting in the wings...

The wait is over. And here's the scoop: If you haven't heard of the innovative, incredibly talented duo, Drape, you soon will.

We were lucky enough to be able to release Dream Words-- which was recorded more than two years ago by this Seattle based Ryan Gracey and Spencer Williams-- and another long finished masterwork will be issued by the great Infraction records in the coming months.

What makes Drape special isn't that they can craft drones as deep and shimmering as any other ambient heavyweight on the block (Bissonnette, Kowalski, Bible & Henry, Baker, Hecker etc.). It's their remarkably innovative approach to sound.

Field recordings and other sound sources combine to form a language all their own. Indeed, "Dream Words" rivals any release in our catalog for the most fitting title. The bottom line is if you like expertly detailed ambient compositions to both soothe and engross yourself in then look no further than the shadowy beauty of Drape.

A quote on their website from W.H. Hudson's classic "A Crystal Age" captures the poetic intentions of Drape's deeply realized Dream Words:

"I sat there in the dark, wondering, as men will wonder at such moments, what this tempest of the soul which music wakes in us can mean: whether it is merely a growth of this our earth-life, or a something added, a divine hunger of the heart which is part of our immortality."


Link to Sound Samples & Purchase

Longtime and prolific sound artist Pholde is the ambient side of Alan Bloor, who is also known for his extreme noise project called Knurl. Pholde creates ambient soundscapes by the bowing and scraping of self-created metal sound-sculptures with other metal objects. For the first time on this recoring, Alan introduces the subtle and beautiful accompaniement of violin.



The resulting violin works absolutely wonderfully with signature pholde 'floating metal' ambience. There's a remarkable refinement of composition here as well; improv and open but just the right economy: never do strings sound cliche against the always interesting songs of the prepared metals nor vice versa. The violin is like a siren song wafting in the shadows of the singing scrap yard. The strings play as do the metals--with just the right doses of restraint and space--co-mingling to, as, indeed, a most 'luminous' effect.

Link to Sound Samples & Purchase

http://cdbaby.com/cd/pdwilder

This release from 2009 offers 69 minutes of guitar ambience.

Guitar textures unfurl into expansive structures of ethereal definition.

An edgy form of ambience is achieved by these meandering guitar tones. Notes are hinted at but kept shrouded in shadow. Chords are sustained and bent, then subjected to embellishment by atmospheric tendencies. The sound is vaporous and attenuated toward harmonic streams that slither through the air like gaseous serpents.

Sometimes strumming is almost audible, but the notes intentionally blur into each other, resulting in a hazy presence of gaseous certification.

A chilled environment is conjured by these tunes, remote and austere, exotic in its emptiness, made alluring by its very whiteout.

While the compositions are highly fragile, a certain verve is discernible, albeit relegated to a vantage just beyond the listener's periphery. This elusive quality gives the pieces a yearning character, forcing the audience to complete each with their own psychic input.

http://www.soniccuriosity.com/sc405.htm