While You Were Sleeping

Here's another somnambulent mix, for the late night confessionals.

Poetics aside, i'm really pleased with how these discs came out, some really lovely slo burners. A nice introduction to my early holy holies, Dead Can Dance and Cranes, mixed with more recent introductions to the canon like Michael Hurley and Vic Chesnutt. This is music that inspires and drives me, keeps me company while the rest of the world is sleeping. Peel back the curtain, and take a peek into my cellar...

A friend of mine was asleep on the couch, same locale as tender sweet enlightenment, a month before. I was thinking back on all that had gone before, love lost, love regained, love vanishing like some magician's cruel sense of humor. Kicking out the late night vibes, dreamy, mellow, lovely. My friend slept peacefully, breathing regularly. Together but alone.

And here's the real shit, the writing on the wall: what is love, anyway? Is it marriage and procreation? Is it physical? Is it practical? Does it make sense? I fell in love with a girl, doing my best to be bold and follow my instincts. It was timeless and revelatory. It cracked me open like Vesuvius. But the fact of the matter is that i never see this person, she is intensely tied up, living up to her destiny, and i have done my best to be respectful, low pressure, giving space where space is needed.

Then there's this other woman, my awesome soul sister. We drink coffee and smoke cigarettes in the morning, walk around town and make bizarre sound collages and talk about everything under the sun and the moon. Things in motion, unfurling like the banner of some dead empire; springing back to life, flowing with the dusty blood of poets, unfolding into mystery. Radiating in the inky blackness, glowing like a pierced heart, sparking like damaged telephone lines, dead voices reciting.

Undefinable, unknowable. Majestic. Mystical. Regal. Lovely. Something being born...

3 weeks ago, i was dead sure. I had LOVE pegged down, botanically classified. Put under glass. Now, i don't know my ass from a hole in the ground. Doing my best to do the next right thing, the thing in front of me. Right now, it is being honest and vulnerable, and spilling the soundtrack from a beautiful evening, so you can have a soulful night of yr own. From my brain, to yr living room.

Track Listing

Disc 1

1. Slowdive - Souvlaki Space Station

2. Cranes - Watersong

3. Dead Can Dance - The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove

4. Julee Cruise - Into the Night

5. Gregory Alan Isakov - The Stable Song

6. Chet Baker - My Funny Valentine

7. Cat Power - Say

8. Michael Hurley - Troubled Waters

9. Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions - Feeling of Gaze

10. The American Analog Set - The Green Green Grass

11. Kronos Quartet - Psalom (Arvo Part)

12. Cocteau Twins - Oil of Angels

13. The New Year - Sinking Ship

14. Vic Chesnutt - ?

Disc 2

1. Hildur Gudnadottir - Overcast

2. Dreamer's Cloth - The Coconut Pearl B2

3. Flying Saucer Attack - My Dreaming Hill

4. Aerial M - Dazed and Awake

5. Colleen - Floating in the Clearest Night

6. Eluvium - New Animals from the Air

7. Dakota Suite - One Day Without Harming You

8. Thomas Brinkmann - LopLop

9. Hauschka - Weeks of Rain

10. Hauschka - Nadelwald

11. Fursaxa - Firefly Refrain

Somniative

somniative is a maker of things whose raw materials are culled from places both near and far where the discarded and unused lie, awaiting the sacred return to the realm of human caring and love in celebration of life, beauty, freedom, and joy.

it is thru the merger of these materials and the magic they endure that trifling pieces of finery are created.

may these bring you joy.


Christopher Reitmaier makes beautiful things; installations, music, trifling pieces of finery. His is a unique alchemy; transforming rusty metal from the mojave desert into drool-worthy art, transforming discarded flowers into enormous devotional mandalas. His is an art of seeing, the fine art of living, living a good life, eyes wide open, heart wide open, to all the detritus around you at every moment. He reminds us all that we are constantly surrounded by gorgeous shit.


Flots-OM Jets-OM is a colloborative show between Christopher Reitmaier and Alison Foshee, @ Scrap. Both artists are experts at re-purposing unremarkable urban bric-a-brac into staggering, oftentimes mind-blowing visions. Both artists have a similar aesthetic, a similar sensitivity. The show looks great in Scrap's gallery space. It is eye-opening and inspiring, to see all the different uses these two come up with, for trash you wouldn't think to look twice at.

I met Christopher at Pickathon this summer. We instantly connected as human beings. This whole week, as i've been helping him put up this show, making music, hanging out; i've been reminded of being new to this town, of meeting all my new friends, and i've been so grateful to be a part of something so inspiring.

Flots - Om Jets - Om opens tonight, and will be up 'til Nov. Much of the art will be for sale, for a song.

Somniative

Scrap

come

Review: Barry Brusseau - A Night Goes Through (Gorbie International 2011)

Now the heart of this record is the music, but the soul of it is in the senses of sight and touch. It's really hard to achieve the same aesthetic in any other medium. I wanted to make the kind of record you put on your turntable, and then sit down and experience the package. It's that chance to fully express your imagination (both yours and mine). - Barry Brusseau

Portland Singer-Songwriter Barry Brusseau definitely accomplished his goal on his first solo release, A Night Goes Through, released earlier this year on Gorbie International. My friend and i went on a mission to Mississippi records to pick this up, my first day in Portland, and it was permanently situated on the record player, my first week in Portland, scoring many exciting and confusing mornings and evenings, lodged in my head as i explored the streets of the City of Roses.

The packaging of A Night Goes Through is the first thing that catches yr attention, and quite rightly. The record comes with 13 art postcards, one for each song, with a pictorial representation on the front, and the lyrics on the back; each printed on beautiful matte paper. Ghostly images of autumnal trees and childhood photographs creates a mood of longing and nostalgia, a sense of mystery, that perks up the curiosity like raspberries on the tongue, guiding one into the nooks and crannies, the secret heart of the album.

This attention to detail is captured in the music as well, flourishes and nuances, like the call-and-response cello of The Promise, trumpet fanfares on Autumn, or the sweet lead guitar on Thrift Store Buzz
. The talented and sensitive arrangements help Barry Brusseau stand apart from the legions of tepid, uninspired cafe-dwellers, with nothing of import to say. A Night Goes Through is a record that you can spend some time with, gazing at its beautiful artwork, getting to know the lyrics, and vicariously, getting to know Barry Brusseau.

In this day and age of ultimate media glut, it is difficult to seperate the wheat from the chaff, difficult to keep up with the deluge of inspired art that is pouring out every second of every day. Care, quality, and craftmanship are becoming increasingly essential, the bar has been raised, and some are rising to the challenge. I admire this devotion to the music, elevating the world and the people in it by creating something amazing. Barry Brusseau has created something amazing here, saving 50 bucks a week for over 2 years to put this sucker out. He's selling the record for 10 bucks a piece, which seems almost certifiable to me. If yr around town, i'd recommend picking it up at Mississippi Records or Millenium Music, or some other fine purveyor of underground tunage. If yr not from around these parts, pick it up online, tell yr friends, and stop by and visit some of the amazing talent that's going on in the rainy part of the country.

A Night Goes Through is an inspired first release, with potential of even greater things to come. Don't sleep on this one, he only made 300.



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