26 October 2021: Adrianne Lenker; Michael Oscillate

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Due to the City Council Work Session broadcast on KMXT, tonight's show may begin later than 9 pm.  We'll start the show immediately upon adjournment of the Work session.

Adrianne Elizabeth Lenker (born July 9, 1991) is an American musician from Indianapolis, Indiana, best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of Big Thief.  On October 23, 2020, she released two albums, Songs and Instrumentals, through 4AD.

It was early March 2020 and the Big Thief tour had just been cut short, so I flew from Europe to NYC. It just so happened that there was a little cabin available for rent right next door to Zoe and Brian in the mountains in Western MA. So I grabbed my truck and drove out to the country. As I settled into the cabin over the course of a month, I grew really connected to the space itself. The one room cabin felt like the inside of an acoustic guitar -- it was such a joy to hear the notes reverberate in the space . I got a hankering to capture it, so I called my friend Phil and asked “How’d you like to get outta the city and make a record that sounds like the inside of an acoustic guitar?” Phil said “100%” and by the grace of some of our dear friends, we were able to gather the materials needed. Brendan lent us about 45 tape machines. Eli lent us a binaural head (which looked remarkably like Phil), and Shahzad lent us a pile of XLR cables. I drove into the city at 5am on the 20th of April, scooped up Phil and then we filled my truck to the brim as we stopped and gathered the gear along the way back to Massachusetts.

We unloaded all of the equipment into the small cabin and began setting up. Unfortunately, one of the first things that happened was the unstable electricity fried four of our tape machines, including the Otari 8 track. Bill tried to fix it at his shop in Sturbridge, but it was beyond repair.

After almost three weeks of setup and troubleshooting, the studio finally was operating -- although the only functioning tape recorder we had was Phil’s battery powered Sony Walkman. We felt at peace with the idea that we might just be recording the whole record on cassette tape, but that would have meant no overdubs, so I’m grateful for the rescue Otari 8 Track that Brendan was able to dig out of storage and deliver to us right before we had lost all hope.

I had a handful of songs that I was planning on recording, but by the time Phil arrived I was on a whole new level of heartsick and the songs were flying through my ears. I was basically lying in the dirt half the time. We went with the flow. A lot of the focus was on getting nourishment from our meals. We cooked directly on the woodstove, and we went on walks to the creek every day to bathe.

Nine of these songs were written freshly during the recording session. We began and closed each day with an improvised acoustic guitar instrumental, and we made a collage of our favorite pieces, which became the first side of the instrumentals album.

I’m grateful that this music has come into existence. These songs have helped me heal. I hope that at least in some small way this music can be a friend to you.
 

Webpage:  http://www.adriannelenker.com/

credits

released October 23, 2020

All songs performed and written by Adrianne Lenker and published by Domino Publishing Company of America, Inc. (ASCAP)

Recorded/engineered by Philip Weinrobe in Westhampton, MA in the Berkshire Mountains from April 22 - May 23, 2020.

Mixed by Philip Weinrobe at Figure 8 Recording in Brooklyn, NY at the end of May 2020.

Mastered by Scott Hull at Masterdisk in Peekskill, NY in the middle of June 2020.

Acoustic guitar, paintbrush, needles of a white pine tree, and vocals performed by Adrianne Lenker.

Co-Produced by Adrianne Lenker and Philip Weinrobe.

Additional sounds provided by mother nature.

Cover and back painting by Dianne Lee.

Design and layout by Sarah Schiesser.

2020, 2020 Adrianne Lenker under exclusive license to 4AD Ltd

license

all rights reserved


 

 


The second part of tonight's show will feature Michael Oscillate's recent release, Hyperbolic Hypnosis of Luminescence.

Back with another full-length release, Michael Oscillate brings chaos and order together in a Yin and Yang formation in his 8-track album “Hyperbolic Hypnosis of Luminescence”.

The compelling artwork is enough to capture one’s attention, and the music behind it is sure to make listeners want to stick around.

As mentioned, the album tackles both chaos (“DORgone”) and order (“Cloud Condensation with Resonation”), but also goes on to combine features like spoken word (“Dislodge”) that are yet to be explored through Oscillate’s extensive catalogue. Oscillate toes the line between melody and dissonance in an innovative display of talent and creativity, in what is perhaps his most complete project yet. The inspired choices of audio sampling make for an auditory experience that just about covers the entire spectrum of human emotion, in an album that is almost as philosophical as it is musical.

The overall composition of this album is not unlike a “good life” itself; with moments of peace and moments of chaos and uncertainty that all combine to capture the beauty of our
existence.

credits

released October 1, 2021

Michael Bargen

license

all rights reserved