update Nov 24/08: Three New Releases!
Stars of the Lid-Music for Nitrous Oxide-re-issue cd, Novi_Sad-Jailbirds cd, Bhob Rainey/Angst Hase Pfeffer Nase split 7-inch record
TO ORDER: all cd titles are $10 each postage inclusive within the U.S. -If outside the U.S. please add $5 per title. The 7” is $7ppd(+$4 for intl). Total your complete order and send that amount from your Paypal account to: sedimental@earthlink.net - if you do not have a paypal account please e-mail us for alternate payment methods
STARS OF THE LID’S 1994 classic debut re-issued with new mastering and artwork!!
Stars of the Lid-Music for Nitrous Oxide compact disc, 79 minutes (sedcd023)
first pressing 1000 copies. Full color digi-packs
NOVI_SAD Jailbirds (sedcd053) 1) Komdu! Hvert? 21:06 2) Torched estates 19:40 limited to 500 copies and housed in our plastic-free gatefold sleeves with spine, art design by cs08
Novi_Sad’s work came to our attention via our good friend Susanna Bolle( Non-Event and Rare Frequency) in Boston. A superbly keen ear, Bolle felt that his work and our label should connect. Though Nov-Sad’s has only a few years of practice behind him, the quality and maturity of all of his efforts is striking. The proposed Jailbirds material for Sedimental was totally complete and not only of the highest quality but also of a truly unique vision. What is significant in his work is the multiplicity of its action on the listener. It is a density of sound, acting in three-dimensions, not as auditorysound effect but as music with depth both physically and in functionality. Its intensity and purposefulness based in specific conceptual foundations and enhanced by a mastery (and transcendence) of technical means collapses amplified environmental recordings, drone manipulations, structured ambient soundscape, microtones and overtones into unified whole. Sedimental is truly excited to be an early anchor of this young composer and sound artist’s serious oeuvre.
NoviSad (Thanasis Kaproulias, b. 1980) is a graduate student from the Economic University of Piraues. He lives and works in Athens, Greece where he began generating sounds in 2005. His debut album Misguided heart pulses, a hammer, she and the clock received worldwide critical acclaim. Recently, Novisad did a recording session at the prestigious VPRO studios in Amsterdam, for the Dutch National Radio which will be released by Staalplaat [NL] in the Mort Aux Vaches series. His latest piece Dramazon is available on TouchRadio from the publishing house Touch [U.K]. He is currently working on a project based on various methods of audio analysis called Sirens in which he explores the aesthetics of information on sound by using quantitative data from major stock market crashes in history.
BHOB RAINEY-Ain’t it Grand ANGST HASE PFEFFER NASE- Journey to the Center of Something or Other In the form of split 7-inch record (sed07002) limited to 350 copies artwork by jess goddard
Proposed for Sedimental as a glorious masquerade by Boston based by Bhob Rainey (BSC, Nmperign, and infinite collaborative scenarios) and including the opportunity to also release solo work by western, MA’s Chris Cooper(Fat Worm of Error, XO4, Buddies, BSC, etc.) in his Angst Hase Pfeffer Nase guise proved too devastating a proposition to avoid. So we did not…avoid it.
Here we have a circular cover project, or a which came first, a who is whoconundrum. Those who know the respective artists work well enough should be able to suss the jig, and despite a label-less disc there are other ways. So, what do we have here musically? Densely collaged musique concrete-ism edited at a rather brisk pace, essentially. What matters, besides each artist’s specific musical means, is both the sensitivity and the breadth the artists bring to the project. Concise. Humorous. Kick-ass. Classic.
Do we really need to discuss Rainey’s importance on things experimental at this point? I hope not. Chris Cooper on the hand does deserve a bit more elucidation. Though well enough known through the circles in the above mentioned projects, it seems that his particular genius through the discipline of his guitar work is still not wholly understood. He possesses notable music knowledge as well as theoretical approaches that are generally not employed in the lo-fi, experimental noise and punk worlds in which he operates. His contribution to this artifact is yet another important piece of evidence that continues to build an airtight case for his necessary-ness.
most recent releases:
Riccardo Dillon Wanke-Caves cd 43 min. (sedcd051) ltd to 500 copies - Caves called one of the best debut’s of the year by Nick Cain in the The Wire’s September issue
Kyle Bobby Dunn-Fragments & Compositions cd 52 min., (sedcd052) ltd to 500 copies
(both titles issued in our unique plastic-less cardboard gatefold sleeve with spine)
Riccardo Dillon Wanke-Caves
Riccardo Dillon Wanke’s Caves was composed and recorded in 2006 in Alfama (historical district of
Lisbon, Portugal) using acoustic and electric guitars, saxophones and natural sound elements starting from pure radical improvisation evolving into the investigation of drones and static and looped music related to minimalism. At the center of these works are the binaural beats in musical composition, the results lying between classical composition, minimalistic improvisation and a “folk” sensitivity. The five tracks of Caves explore this in various ways. Its music plays with the relation between different geometries: expanded drones and concrete sounds, acoustic melodies and looped music. The project is music with a sort of irrational tension within a composed piece, built as a musical space made with few elements. On the surface, its aura seems immediately knowable and known yet Wanke has delivered a much more complex, nearly radical gesture.
Wanke was born in Genova, Italy in 1977, was established in Milan from 1982 until 2005 and now lives and works in Lisbon. He began to study piano 1986, playing saxophone (tenor and alto) in 1994, and then guitar in 2001. He has been working in the experimental music field since 2000 (long-term collaborations with Giuseppe Ielasi, Francesco Dillon, Stefano Pilia, David Maranha, Renato Rinaldi, Christian Alati, Andrea Belfi, Margarida Garcia). He is member of Medves group.
Press: “Caves hovers between discord and beauty, between drone and improvised to build a collection of pieces that swings between hypnotic, poignant, emotional pulling….He also often adds in cut-up improvised instrumental elements, or textural sound settles fuzzed over the top of the drones which really heightens the music’s strange, tragic and often beautiful charm. Caves is an exceptional work of honesty, pain and beauty which will have you seeing wonder and magic in every crack, chip and dis-colorment that surrounds your existence-simply spellbinding stuff”-Roger Batty, Musique Machine, 06/2008)
” In this calm and dilated sea the sound grow and extend as an hypnosis, evoking sometimes minimalistic backgrounds speckled of bluesy notes (and) or raga-folk mutation (the beautiful Jest), exploring ways where the (ec)static formula of minimalism pervades in the improvisation and in the folk memories, leaving the droning of a sax kept on the puff-sound boundary dissolve itself in a modulation of bewildered beauty (Old Man). Wanke is, in fact, the nicest monthly surprise in the electro-acoustic field; moving close to David Maranha, Manuel Mota, Giuseppe Ielasi….resulting in a bright and peculiar personality, a clear and conscious sound, a never banal composing ability. 8 out of 10” -Stefano Bianchi-Blow UP magazine, 07/2008)
“Wanke layers sound upon sound, starting with a few simple disparate sounds and then goes on and on to layers them until a somewhat (not to) dense mass of sound arrives….Very nice record, this one, with solid improvised drone music-FdW, Vital Weekly, 05/2008)
Kyle Bobby Dunn-Fragments & Compositions Fragments & Compositions is a collection of long-processed recordings that began at several universities and art centers visited frequently from 2005 to 2007. Working with classically trained musicians recruited on a whim, Dunn recorded the often awkward sounds of the sessions and sparse notes of the musicians as Dunn dictated. The music addresses amongst other aspects: the pace of meeting people and their vanishing, the human condition, the nothingness of being, indifference, the ephemeral, the bleak and the misery of mid-winter and mid-summer. Yet also the warmly humanist acceptance of these negative terms and things. Sedimental has been following Dunn’s sensitive and world-wise drone works closely for many years (keep in mind he is only 21 now), and with this brilliant new release we expect to expand his presence on many levels. KBD was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1986 and active since 2000 as a minimalist composer and sound artist. As a sound artist, Dunn has exercised his work in exclusive outdoor locations, generating sound from site-specific environments and processing them via analog setups and laptop. He’s also premiered his more musical works at various academic settings including the Alberta College of Art and Design, The Banff Arts Centre, Cantos Music Museum, the University of North Carolina, The Bickett Gallery, and the more typical indie-rock venue.
“…there’s an austere classical air to Dunn’s compositions, recalling the geometry of cathedral domes and the interlaced ribs of vaulted ceilings.” -The Wire Magazine
RECENT RELEASES:
SILLAGE-s/t (sedcd049) Sillage is Brendan Murray and Seth Nehil in collaboration Certainly amongst our most challenging releases, Sillage is the mind-blowing collaboration of Brendan Murray and Seth Nehil and is the result of a first meeting in a live setting from 2004, a performance that was loud, powerful, and very successful. This event combined with knowing these electronic sound artists previous work as generally maximalist and full makes Sillage both curious and nearly shocking in this light, as here the material is continually turning inward, trying to push out but always being submerged. This document takes many, many listens and can remain baffling and impenetrable. Yet with patience one does get underneath it, and once this happens the sonic rewards are otherworldly and deep. Followers of either or both artists work should recognize his particular contributions but this venture has provoked new and uncharted territory from both. “There’s a shapeliness that’s unusual in abstract music of this kind, and no matter how fractured, layered or collage-like the sounds become, they always seem to fit the immediate purpose, the requirements of the composition, and the trajectory of the CD as a whole. Sillage, is a hugely satidfying piece of work.”-Brian Marley in the November WIRE
TIM FEENEY/VIC RAWLINGS-In Six Parts(sedcd050) Vic Rawlings is as careful and focused as any musician/improviser working today. Over the years he has honed his prepared cello and electronic, open circuit ‘device’ performances down to sparse, tight, violent little assaults. His many collaborative projects run long and deep in Boston (undr quartet, the bsc) and beyond (NRA, MAWJA) and this (relatively) recent partnership with the youngster Tim Feeney has produced immediate and excellent results as well. This release also finally gets Rawlings properly into the Sedimental roster, something that is long overdue. So what do we have here? Feeney, a percussionist, is less a foil than a multiplier of the Rawlings aesthetic. The first five parts are static, lean, and pinpointed explorations of high pitches, specific gestures of scrapes and buzzes. Cold, but organic. Sparse, but rich. Feeney does provide a modicum of warmth as heard on Part Six, the final section of the disc, which acts an emotional counterweight to the previous five. A rhythm emerges, slowly unfolding, repeating, a know-able signpost amid the desolation, a way out, but not exactly towards home. “Hell, it almost sounds ‘heroic’ at some points as the sustained high pitches acquire a semi-tonal character and play off the deep, cello growls, providing an especially delicious counterpoint. A very satisfying, well-conceived album from two musicians not heard often enough.”-Brian Olewnick in BAGATELLEN
“Despite its refusal to make any concession to the listener, the music draws you and doesn’t let you go.”-Dan Warbuton in the December WIRE
FO(A)RM no. 5 (autonomy)-special sound-art issue with an exclusive full-length CD 156 pp., 7 x 9 perfect-bound, full-color cover, $15 each(media mail within US, surface orverseas) features: -special section on Phillipine composer Jose Maceda -an in-depth interview with the reclusive Serbian radio composer Arsenije Jovanovic -an essay on the early scores of Robert Ashley by cellist Alex Waterman -a history of the non-profit artist’s residency by the Boston-based Berwick Research Institute contributions from: Giancarlo Toniutti, Francisco Lopez, John Duncan, Michael Bullock, Max Krafft, Luis Lopez with composer Barbara Held, Przemyslaw Jasielski, Michael J. Schumacher, Lionel Marchetti, Paolo Javier, Steven Zultanski and Travis Nichols, Chris McDonald sedimental pressed compact disc at 80 minutes in length(sedcd046): Jonas Baes, Barbara Held, Arsenije Jovanovic, Jose Maceda and Michael J. Schumacher
BHOB RAINEY/RALF WEHOWSKY-I don’t think I can see you tonight (sedcd047) -five years in the making, a deft, uncomprising collaboration from two masters: “from where I’m sitting this is one of the most important works of electronic music to appear this decade.” Dan Warburton in February 2007 Paris Transatlantic
MICHEL DONEDA/GIUSEPPE IELASI/INGAR ZACH-Flore de Cataclysmo (sedcd048) -a powerful, cohesive and highly intelligent improvisational document. “Flore de Cataclysmo, with its surprising line-up, wins out. There are tiny moments of specific pleasure…but the entirety is gorgeous”-Jon Dale, May issue of The Wire