We’re excited to announce the upcoming release of an EP of remixes from I and I’s “White Noise/Black Music”. It will be appropriately called “Black Noise/White Music” and four artists have contributed remixes. Czech native Dikolson (formerly of Khoiba) produced a hard driving version of “Venus” that ascends like a spiral staircase to the sky. LA producer Questions has turned out a really thumpin version of “The Top” that’s somewhere in between House and Hip Hop. Fellow Alchemist, Eric Sarmiento deconstructed “The Bottom” and reassembled it into something new and Chase Spivey (of Psychedelic band Ghost of Monkshood) has turned “The Futurist” into a laid back minimal chill groove. Look for some samples soon and here’s the cover:
Archive for the ‘Music’ Category
White Noise/Black Music remixes EP out 4/13
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010more alchemists on more stages in 2010!
Sunday, January 10th, 2010New Eric Sarmiento single “Strange Power/So She Says” out now
Monday, November 16th, 2009The previously mentioned new single from Eric Sarmiento is now available digitally. Download a free e-booklet for the songs, listening and links to buy the tracks here. The songs are getting some high praise from the blogosphere. Here are a sample of some of what is being said:
laughing evergreens
Laughing Evergreens blog from Israel seems to have grokked the essence of the songs. Here is a snippet of his post:
“Relationships… where do I start? The complexity of interacting with other people over time and context seems to rise in rate equaling that of entropy filling the universe. The results of both processes, gaping holes of pain, may be similar as well on some cases. In other cases, the serene stars littered skies, each in its own place, seem to present a working unified system. But humans defy the cosmos and its mathematical laws; friend is sometimes foe, kin betrays kin, love is found in the most unlikely places.”
Let us know what you think of the new tunes with a comment here or drop Eric a line at his myspace.
New I and I EP ‘Weird Animals’ coming soon
Monday, November 9th, 2009New EP Weird Animals is coming soon. We don’t have a firm date yet but the limited CD will be available in early December with the digital download following in early January. The track list is as follows:
1. Only Grey
2. Weird Animal
3. Madame X
4. Can’t Get Much
5. The Middle
6. Driving in the Dark
I played some of these tunes in Norway. Most of them are songs from the same sessions as “White Noise/Black Music” that either didn’t seem to fit with the other songs or I couldn’t seem to finish. I had a fondness for all of them and thought this EP would be a good venue for them. In December the “single” Weird Animal will be available as a free download. More on that in a few weeks.
Strange Power
Friday, October 9th, 2009Music can have interesting synesthetic qualities. Certain songs can seem to reflect and even shape your experiences and the world around you. The way we feel, the thoughts we have and the events that happen can all have interesting relationships with the songs that seem to be fitting accompaniments. A song you hear today you may love but tomorrow may not be that intriguing or appropriate for your mood. Sometimes you can’t stop wanting to hear a song because it fits so well with the season and the mood you’re in. Two such songs that I’ve been really hooked on lately have been Eric’s forthcoming single “Strange Power/So She Says”. Something about these two songs seems to codify the falling leaves, cool breezes and confusing changes that Autumn always brings with it. They speak of relationships and strange powers that affect us in ways we can’t explain and can’t ignore. They convey a mood, much like Autumn, which is invigorating like the first cold winds that blow but that has an element of sadness and the poignant fleeting nature of life.
In a way, this new single evokes a similar feeling and kinship with one of my favorite records (and one that was influential in getting me back into music after a hiatus) The Pistol Arrows ‘Look’. That being said these new songs are definitely fresh and new and unlike anything that Eric has previously recorded. I guess it would be appropriate to call this single a true double A sided single. Neither song is a B side or lesser accomplishment. ‘Strange Power’ the lead off, starts off with ominous piano and drums not unlike the children’s song ‘Halloween’s Coming’ and from there it maintains this thumping pensive groove under lyrics of the Strange Power of attraction. There is a full sparseness here that feels like nothing extraneous is present and all the parts are working synergistically together. The song does away with the traditional A, B type structure as it enters an upbeat outro section that nicely segues into the feeling of the second song. The outro lyrics evoke the poignant feeling I mentioned earlier and there is a sense of resolve about the fact that many things in life are never resolved. ‘So She Says’ starts off with a mysterious upbeat modern New Wave type vibe and progresses along that line interweaving synths, drums, guitars and vocals in ways not often heard this side of something great like Modern English’s ‘Melt With You’. “It’s too dark in this house” nicely encapsulates the sentiment of a lot of the lyrics which explore parting and relationships and the “houses” where such things take place.
In short, this has been an attempt to describe how much I love these songs and to preview what you will soon be hearing when they are released early next month. We have a lot of other good releases on the way which we’ll be mentioning in future postings. I will soon be heading over to Norway to play some I and I shows. You can read more details on that on my iandimusic.com site and I hope to post some stuff here and there on the trip. For now I’ll leave you with the cover of Eric’s new single below. Appropriately it’s a photo of Eric’s friend trying to catch the setting sun.
Adam
NYC Show, New Single
Saturday, September 19th, 2009
Many thanks to everyone who came out to the show at Sullivan Hall last month and made it such a wonderful evening. The Able Birds are a fantastic band and such kind people, too. Hopefully that night was the first of many times I get to share a bill with them. Later in the evening, it was a real pleasure to be joined on stage by my comrade Alli Smith! As captured in one of these great photos taken by my friend Kristen Reed — thanks, K! Thanks, too, to the very patient and chilled out bartender at V-bar who humored me after the show. Oh, and if you’re looking for a nice late night place to grab a bite to eat around there, Raoul’s makes an amazing roasted beet and goat cheese salad.
In other news, I’ve been working on finishing up two songs that will be released as an e-single in the next month or so (if all goes smoothly). One’s about how one space can be many different places, and features dogs of darkness and dubious theories of the universe. The other is about the intriguing fact that, even before we try to (or try not to), we connect with some people more than others, and when those connections are strong enough, they call into being a different world right where you are, amidst the one that you were living in before…but then there are always circumstances to contend with. And there’s the fact that, to paraphrase one of my idols, when we act/choose, many other people and things are acting/choosing with us. Which raises the question, does the collection of agencies that come together in any given choice limit or multiply the possibilities?
More to come, friends….
ers
Jeremy Cox’s Citybound remastered and available now
Monday, August 31st, 2009For those of you with the problem of not already owning ‘Citybound’, Jeremy’s great sonic record of a sensitive Aussie traversing the dense spaces of Tokyo, now would be an excellent time to make the world right — as of today, the album can be purchased from your favorite online music retailer. Chuck Klosterman may say that “remastered” just means “made louder,” but the new version of ‘Citybound’, while perhaps being louder, also sounds BETTER: the jagged, angular guitars cut you deeper; the drums (which manage to be both electronic and tribal) make it even harder to sit still, and sometimes drag you along whether you like it or not; the nuances of jeremy’s voice stand out more as he alternately incites you, consoles you, conspires and commiserates with you; and the synths, in their increased expansiveness, lift you up and carry you along to the charming earthiness of shitamachi (here I’m thinking of the choruses of ‘Comfort’)…when they’re not pressing you into a corner between one of those endless escalators on the Hanzomon line and the disturbing, spidery statue at Roppongi Hills (the verses of ‘Comfort’ could be that thing’s theme song).
I’m tempted to start quoting lyrics from the record to illustrate what I mean when I say Jeremy is one of the best lyricists writing today, but that would be foolish when I can let the man speak, or rather write, for himself: whether you buy the record or not, visit this page and see what he has to say. These are words to amazing songs, but this is what people are talking about when they say, “so and so’s lyrics are like poetry!” I challenge you, friends, to visit your favorite music blogs today and find a lyricist better than Monsieur Cox.
Okay, I can’t resist. Here’s a favorite:”you carefully lower yourself into the evening/bathing in friendship, it’s wet on your skin/it’s lavish around you, it covers your eyes/shelters you in your home and quickens your heart/it’s planetlike, you breath it in/then it’s changed into something way beyond heaven/you ease on in/knocked out on wine but never anything less than a knockout/you’re seasonal, you’re so winter, so summer…any blemishes on you dissolve into meaning…if there’s even a little bit there, let it loose on me.” And while I’m at it, I’ll let Jeremy have the last word: “It’s chronic, this is…and it’s happening…if anything is happening…come on, this is a come on”
- Eric Sarmiento 8/30 NJ.
Download a free mp3 of ‘Comfort’ here.
New records from One in a Googolplex available now!
Monday, July 27th, 2009We are happy to announce that ‘Hands’, the fantastic new album from German artist One In A Googolplex, is now available at a variety of online retail sites. The latest addition to the Alchemist collective, OIAG’s music is a fresh combination of acoustic and electronic sounds – think Múm meets Nick Drake, smart lyrics, and softly-sung melodies. Sebastian Häusler is the mastermind behind OIAG, and if you suspect that we use the term ‘mastermind’ unadvisedly, bear in mind that Sebastian boldly drew the name One In A Googleplex from Back to the Future III. A googolplex is 10(10)(100). Carl Sagan estimated that writing a googolplex in numerals (i.e.10,000,000,000…) would be physically impossible, since doing so would require more space than the known universe occupies! If that fails to catch your attention, take note of the intricacy and subtlety of the arrangements on ‘Hands’: these songs make clear the distinction between, or better yet, the marriage of the terms ‘songwriter’ and ‘composer’. Sebastian manages to work in ukelele, glockenspiel, melodica, various percussion, and a range of mysterious sounds into his layers of synths and guitars without ever going overboard or distracting from the emotional force of the songs.
It has been said that ‘Hands’ “tells us in a sophisticated way that optimism is cool again.” We agree, and add that such a reminder seems rather important at present, so check out the record and let Sebastian know what you think. To give you a sample of ‘Hands’ we are offering a track from the album, ‘Accents yet Unspoken’ for free.
In addition to ‘Hands’ we are also digitally releasing Sebastian’s firt OIAG album ‘The Proclaimer’. We plan to post an interview with him here on the Alchemist site as part of the new blog section of the website, which is currently under construction, so please check back for that soon. Meanwhile, visit One in a Googolplex’s myspace page to contact and learn more about OIAG.
I and I’s ‘White Noise/Black Music’ released!
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009One year ago, while checking email in a public library, I received an early draft of I and I’s new record, ‘White Noise/Black Music’ which I immediately downloaded and started playing(On headphones, of course!). In a word, I was blown away. I had heard early versions of some of the songs months before, and had contributed some guitar parts, but I was not prepared for how much the songs, the production, the overall vision of the record had developed. Fans of previous I and I stuff will recognize the mix of pushing boundaries while nodding to influences, the expansive soundscapes and, above all, Adam’s soulful voice. But despite these similarities, there is something markedly distinct about this album … the evolutionary term “the great leap forward” comes to mind. Same species, but equipped with something hugely different, something that opens up a vast number of new possibilities.
Like most great records, WN/BM manages to sound lush without being overly crowded with instruments and sounds. Where I and I’s 2005 full-length ‘We Are’ was pleasantly hectic and busy at times, Sarmiento has here pared down substantially, giving us laid-back dance grooves, a few essential tone colors per song, and minimalist seasonings that underscore the fact that each part in a composition is both harmonic and rhythmic. This is indeed a ‘dance’ record in some sense, but bears a closer resemblance to those rare great records (Talking Head’s ‘Remain in Light’ and New Order’s ‘Power, Corruption, and Lies’ are two that come to mind) that make you move, think, feel, and continue humming long after leaving the club. No small feat.
One track from the album is available for free download here, and the rest can be purchased in mp3 format from your preferred online music retailer. For those who still like to have a physical object in their hands, and cd quality tracks for their ears, click the paypal link here to buy the disc directly from the Alchemist collective. Visit www.iandimusic.com for more about the album and Adam’s new blog Weekly Noise.
-Eric Sarmiento
New e-single and video from Eric Sarmiento available
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009After working for four years on his 2008/2009 full-length ‘the declaration of interdependence’ Eric had more than a few ideas for new songs stored up. “At some point in the album making process, I kind of decided I had written everything I was going to write for ‘the declaration’ and from then on I was just tweaking and reworking the original batch of songs for that record” he says. “But during that process of refining the album, tons of new ideas were coming out of the work, as well as the stuff that was going on in my life. I didn’t have time to flesh out the ideas, but most of them I got down in a kind of rough draft, demo form.” As soon as the final mixing and mastering work was done on ‘the declaration’, Eric started work on exploring the cache of demos he had built up, some of which turned into the two songs on the new internet-only single ‘Alejandra Told Me/Hypnosis’.
Both of the new songs were influenced by the energetic grit, beauty, and earthy grandeur of Valencia, Spain where they were written. “I loved walking around the labyrinth of tiny streets winding through stone buildings, listening to headphones or the crowds of people hanging out late at night,” Eric tells us. “One night I went to a party that, while not unusually cool or exciting -just full of nice and interesting people talking and listening to good music- somehow became the site of some heavy revelations for me. I went home and wrote ‘Alejandra’ that night.”
The ‘b-side’ of the single, ‘Hypnosis’ is a quieter affair, delving into spaces of memory, by way of a hazy wash of reverb-laden voices, guitars, harmonium and synths. When pressed for comment on this one, Eric told the following anecdote: “I had breakfast with some friends a while back, and one couple there had just come from somewhere in Arizona, where they entered some kind of nexus of energy, I think they called it a “vortex” which happened to be occupied by a sauna. The interesting thing is that they couldn’t just go straight to the vortex by going to the sauna, but instead had to walk through a series of spaces in the desert and nearby towns and then go to the sauna before arriving at the vortex.”
…. Whatever that may mean, we’re glad to say that the creative flows set in motion during the finishing stages of ‘the declaration….’ are reportedly still going strong, and Eric plans to release several more e-singles over the coming months. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, the new release can be checked out here, where you’ll also find links to itunes, emusic, and other online retail sites where you can buy the tracks. To see Jeffrey Palmer’s brilliant video for ‘Alejandra Told Me’
Finally, speaking of ‘the declaration…’, you can now purchase downloads of the whole album at a plethora of online retail sites as well. To do so, click here where the record can be listened to for free, and cd copies can be ordered directely from us.
