Artist  : Taylor Deupree
Title   : Shoals
Genre   : Ambient
Year    : 2010
Date    : 07/2010
Bitrate : VBR kbps
Tracks  : 04
Label   : 12k
Source  : CDDA
Encoder : Lame 3.97
Length  : 45:19 min
Size    : 58,9 MB

Tracklist:
----------

01.Shoals                                 11:28
02.Rusted Oak                             09:37
03.A Fading Found                         12:07
04.Falls Touching Grasses                 12:07
                                         -------
                                          45:19 min

Almost 3 years have passed since the
release of Northern, Taylor DeupreeÆs
last proper full-length album on 12k.
For Deupree, Northern  was a
particularly personal work, with the
added pressure of following up what many
considered to be his seminal album,
Stil. By many accounts, Northern was
even more widely praised than its
predecessor and set Deupree on a path of
a more tactile organic sound. Since
Northern, Deupree has released a number
of short solo works: Sea Last (12k2011),
1am (12k2004), and Live1:Mapping
(12k3006), as well as the remixed
reissue of Northern (12k2009). These
works have seen Deupree incorporate more
acoustic instrumentation into his sound
world, culminating with Weather & Worn
(12k2012), which not only saw its
release on vinyl (a first for 12k) but
was also DeupreeÆs first work created
without synthesizers.

The path then had been laid for Shoals,
an album referencing the sonic and
emotional world that can be discovered
by scraping away surfaces to reveal a
worn interior of comfort and time.

Shoal: a sandbank or sand bar in the bed
of a body of water, especially one that
is exposed above the surface of the
water at low tide.

Shoals is perhaps DeupreeÆs most
specific album in material concept and
sound. In late 2009, he was invited to
an artist residency program at the
University of York (UK) Music Research
Center. He was given the freedom to
create a project with the resources of
the University and staff at his
disposal. The idea was to find a unique
idea that he would be unable to realize
in his own studio û and this was when he
discovered the UniversityÆs extensive
collection of Javanese and Balinese
gamelan instruments. Without hesitation,
the groundwork was established for his
project at the residency: he would
create an album using only these
instruments by developing a simple yet
powerful audio looping program in the
Kyma programming language to capture it
all and provide the structure for the
finished pieces.

After the first day in the studio,
Deupree quickly realized that he was
less interested in the traditional ways
these instruments were played and more
fascinated by the sounds of the surfaces
of the instruments. And so he began to
utilize their edges and undersides and
find their flaws, such as broken
strings. These instruments, played by
scraping, tapping, or with an eBow,
became the basis for long and meditative
looping beds of sound. In addition, the
microphones in the studio would by
accident occasionally pick up the sounds
of Deupree moving around, brushing the
edge of an instrument or setting down
mallets. These incidental sounds became
as important as the instruments
themselves and lend an incredibly
physical element to the recordings. Much
of Shoals is the sound of microphones in
a room as Deupree loops and composes
live.

The software Deupree developed in Kyma
allowed him to very simply layer loops
and change pitches of his sounds, often
transposing them down 2 or 3 octaves to
further emphasize the cracks and
fragments. After recording many hours of
densely layered loops during the
residency, Deupree returned to his 12k
studio and finessed the works into the 4
tracks on Shoals, each based around one
of the loops.

The result is an album that has the slow
pace of Stil. mixed with the acoustic
imperfections of Weather & Worn and the
randomness of Occur. Particles of
percussive sounds û bells, wood, mallets
û are caught by the loop and repeated
into a hypnotic underbelly that is
coated with a loosely strung Celempung
droned by an eBow. The unexpected and
almost playful sounds of the
instrumentsÆ natural surfaces and room
sounds are in stark contrast to the
smooth tonal melodic elements, yet
together they create an immersive space
that seems to offer a microcosm of
exploration.

Given the strict instrumental concept
Deupree placed on himself, Shoals is
certainly one of the most challenging
and singular visions he has created.
Abandoning any hint of the ôpopö
elements that have sometimes crept into
his music in recent years, he has
combined the structure of his past with
the sounds of his present to create a
truly warm and alluring album (that
Deupree recommends for night-time
listening) that connects the floating
dots of his most important work into a
cohesive and definitive statement.

http://www.12k.com



This NFO File was rendered by NFOmation.net

Artist  : Taylor Deupree
Title   : Shoals
Genre   : Ambient
Year    : 2010
Date    : 07/2010
Bitrate : VBR kbps
Tracks  : 04
Label   : 12k
Source  : CDDA
Encoder : Lame 3.97
Length  : 45:19 min
Size    : 58,9 MB

Tracklist:
----------

01.Shoals                                 11:28
02.Rusted Oak                             09:37
03.A Fading Found                         12:07
04.Falls Touching Grasses                 12:07
                                         -------
                                          45:19 min

Almost 3 years have passed since the
release of Northern, Taylor Deupree’s
last proper full-length album on 12k.
For Deupree, Northern  was a
particularly personal work, with the
added pressure of following up what many
considered to be his seminal album,
Stil. By many accounts, Northern was
even more widely praised than its
predecessor and set Deupree on a path of
a more tactile organic sound. Since
Northern, Deupree has released a number
of short solo works: Sea Last (12k2011),
1am (12k2004), and Live1:Mapping
(12k3006), as well as the remixed
reissue of Northern (12k2009). These
works have seen Deupree incorporate more
acoustic instrumentation into his sound
world, culminating with Weather & Worn
(12k2012), which not only saw its
release on vinyl (a first for 12k) but
was also Deupree’s first work created
without synthesizers.

The path then had been laid for Shoals,
an album referencing the sonic and
emotional world that can be discovered
by scraping away surfaces to reveal a
worn interior of comfort and time.

Shoal: a sandbank or sand bar in the bed
of a body of water, especially one that
is exposed above the surface of the
water at low tide.

Shoals is perhaps Deupree’s most
specific album in material concept and
sound. In late 2009, he was invited to
an artist residency program at the
University of York (UK) Music Research
Center. He was given the freedom to
create a project with the resources of
the University and staff at his
disposal. The idea was to find a unique
idea that he would be unable to realize
in his own studio – and this was when he
discovered the University’s extensive
collection of Javanese and Balinese
gamelan instruments. Without hesitation,
the groundwork was established for his
project at the residency: he would
create an album using only these
instruments by developing a simple yet
powerful audio looping program in the
Kyma programming language to capture it
all and provide the structure for the
finished pieces.

After the first day in the studio,
Deupree quickly realized that he was
less interested in the traditional ways
these instruments were played and more
fascinated by the sounds of the surfaces
of the instruments. And so he began to
utilize their edges and undersides and
find their flaws, such as broken
strings. These instruments, played by
scraping, tapping, or with an eBow,
became the basis for long and meditative
looping beds of sound. In addition, the
microphones in the studio would by
accident occasionally pick up the sounds
of Deupree moving around, brushing the
edge of an instrument or setting down
mallets. These incidental sounds became
as important as the instruments
themselves and lend an incredibly
physical element to the recordings. Much
of Shoals is the sound of microphones in
a room as Deupree loops and composes
live.

The software Deupree developed in Kyma
allowed him to very simply layer loops
and change pitches of his sounds, often
transposing them down 2 or 3 octaves to
further emphasize the cracks and
fragments. After recording many hours of
densely layered loops during the
residency, Deupree returned to his 12k
studio and finessed the works into the 4
tracks on Shoals, each based around one
of the loops.

The result is an album that has the slow
pace of Stil. mixed with the acoustic
imperfections of Weather & Worn and the
randomness of Occur. Particles of
percussive sounds – bells, wood, mallets
– are caught by the loop and repeated
into a hypnotic underbelly that is
coated with a loosely strung Celempung
droned by an eBow. The unexpected and
almost playful sounds of the
instruments’ natural surfaces and room
sounds are in stark contrast to the
smooth tonal melodic elements, yet
together they create an immersive space
that seems to offer a microcosm of
exploration.

Given the strict instrumental concept
Deupree placed on himself, Shoals is
certainly one of the most challenging
and singular visions he has created.
Abandoning any hint of the “pop”
elements that have sometimes crept into
his music in recent years, he has
combined the structure of his past with
the sounds of his present to create a
truly warm and alluring album (that
Deupree recommends for night-time
listening) that connects the floating
dots of his most important work into a
cohesive and definitive statement.

http://www.12k.com



This NFO File was rendered by NFOmation.net