Apropos of nothing but our appreciation for your visit, sometime this week we’ll posting a free EP of covers. Here’s the track listing and cover:
1. I Won’t Be Found (The Tallest Man on Earth) by I and I
2. House of Cards (Radiohead) by Eric Sarmiento
3. Tangled and Strangled (The Pistol Arrows) by Illus Ocean
Streaming and download/purchasing links here. We’ve been into the limited edition CD and download release plan of late. I and I’s own Adam Sarmiento designed an interesting looking translucent sleeve for this one. Here’s some pics.
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:
This year marks the 5th anniversary of I and I’s debut album “We Are” and to celebrate we are giving the album a proper digital release for the first time. Preston Jones of the OK Gazette called it “an exceptional and essential disc” and “the closest thing to space travel you’re likely to slip into your CD player” (they still had CD players back then:). We got some free downloads to wet your appetite.
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“I Can See” – I and I download here
and a wallpaper based on the cover art
I and I’s “Weird Animals” EP will be hitting the digital shelves of the world tomorrow. Download a copy at your seller of choice. Here’s a video for the mysterious and ghostly track “Driving in the Dark”.
Driving in the Dark from I and I on Vimeo.
The limited numbered edition of I and I’s new EP “Weird Animals” is out now! You can order a copy from I and I’s store here. As a free preview we’re offering the title track “Weird Animal” here for you:
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New 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.
Well, the I and I Norway 09 tour has come to an end and I must say that all in all it was an amazing adventure! The shows went pretty well and for the most part Norwegians are very attentive listeners and appreciators of music. The shows in Kristiansand and Bergen were particularly good due to the nice community feeling made by the promoter, venue and audience.
Through the process it occurred to me that a good show is sort of an alchemical process. You need all of the right ingredients to come together in a particular space and time for it to be something really memorable. It requires a part on the audience of moving beyond their normal ways of receiving information/communicating and opening up to a transmission from the performer. It also requires the performer to read the room and try to grab the attention of it. If there is too many people of a certain kind or too few it won’t work. The weather, the seasons, and even the health of the participants can all be crucial to creating the special mood necessary for a good time. It’s especially important for all of the pieces to be in the right place if some or most of the audience has never heard the music before (as was somewhat the case with this tour). I guess it makes it all the more special when everyone does connect and something magical happens. As musicians and artists we spend much of our time chasing that next fleeting moment of the unexpected and exhilarating. When your traveling I suppose you become more aware of how much of life is an alchemical process. From eating, sleeping, relationships, creativity, on up to governance and cooperation there are intricate balances of ingredients that need to be transmuted into something else to achieve the balance that makes it all go round.
Here are some photos from the trip (make sure to click the full screen option for best effect) and good luck with the alchemy in your life.
- Adam/I and I 10/09
One 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
