Camera Obscura Records

United Bible Studies CD Out Now!

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 06:59:00 +0000

Time to catch up with a lot of news, starting with this release.

It's been a while since we've had something new to offer our fine customer base, so we're glad it's a very special release, close to our hearts, and hopefully, very soon, yours. This won't be in the shops for a month or so yet, but for mailing list and web customers, it's available right now.

Artist: United Bible Studies
Title: The Jonah
Cat No: CAM084CD, 10 tracks, 49:49 mins approx

About the band:

Originally formed in Ireland as a duo with an unhealthy desire to emulate the Incredible String Band, UBS quickly evolved into a collective and laid the groundwork for the Deserted Village label and associated activities. Since their formation in winter 2001 they have played and recorded sporadically-never settling on one recording method, or on one line-up. Previous CD "The Shore that Fears the Sea" showed a love of the unadorned beauty of Shirley Collins, Anne Briggs and Vashti Bunyan, Current 93 and Coil.

Live shows throughout Ireland and Britain and most recently the USA (Including Terrastock '08) have seen them wildly improvise with up to twelve members, or play straight trad as a trio. Standard rock instrumentation is bolstered with theremins, fretless banjos, accordions, bugles... whatever comes to hand... Their philosophy is that all paths are equal, all approaches relevant. Members have sometimes met on stage for the first time.

Though inspired by Irish folk, UBS have always seen themselves in a global context. They've had a slew of releases on microlabels across the planet and have invited many like-minded artists to tour Ireland with them including Avarus, Fursaxa, Corsano/Flaherty, Black Forest/Black Sea, Circle, Sunburned Hand of the Man and Josephine Foster. "The Jonah" is their third formal studio album, after "Stations of the Sun, Transits of the Moon", and "Shore…", and the first to garner international release.

About the release:

Camera Obscura is proud to be able to present to the world the follow-up to the band's masterful "The Shore That Fears the Sea" (Deserted Village 2006), and it's a cornucopia of sonic delights, traversing the spectrum from delicate folk to sprawling progressive rock.

The album title is a reference to the James Herbert novel where a "Jonah" is a cursed person who brings bad luck everywhere, and is also the title of the 16 minute avant/progressive folk suite that forms the record's centerpiece. Richard Youngs' progressive rock project Ilk provided the impetus for the band to make a "Prog Album" (which was the working title) so they started with the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink opus "The Jonah". It was the first track recorded for this album during a two week burst of industry and creativity when the band locked themselves away in Mullingar. David's imagery for the first section was partially inspired by the Vin Diesel film Pitch Black and it takes flight in all kinds of different dream directions from there. Running the gamut from delicate acoustic guitar to Sunn 0))) style doom metal and back again, it's an extraordinary feat of the imagination.

Around this central track, a range of shorter tracks orbit, typically acoustic or folk-rock in nature with occasional experimental flourishes, they are characterized by glorious melodies and arrangements and a peerless array of guests. Current 93's Richard Moult provides synth and very David Tibet like vocals to opener "The Swallowing", and help out with the space folk piece "A for Andromeda". Ex Mellow Candle singer Allison O'Donnell provides vocals for several tracks, including the climactic conclusion to a Dave Colohan and Sharron Kraus duet version of the traditional "Lowlands of Holland". Sharron's stamp is elsewhere as well, playing tin whistle on "Veilsong" and her unique parlor guitar was borrowed to bring instrumental "Mirror in Clerkwell" to fruition.

With a sound like expiring infant suns weeping for worlds they'll never warm, "The Jonah" should appeal to lovers of the likes of Espers, Black Forest/Black Sea, Sharron Kraus, and Nick Castro, as well as darker matter like Current 93 and Sol Invictus.

Check out some sounds:

Go to http://www.cameraobscura.com.au and select "Sounds" from the menu. Or visit: http://www.myspace.com/unitedbiblestudies

Price US$15.00/AU$22.00 including shipping.

Method of payment accepted outside Australia:
Go to: http://www.cameraobscura.com.au to purchase on-line via Paypal. There is a link on the home page, as well as on catalog and release info pages.

If having trouble ordering via Paypal through the site, send us your Paypal address, and we can send a invoice direct to you.

Method of payment accepted within Australia:
Paypal (use the US$ or AU$ options), Direct Debit, Bank Deposit (use the AU$ cost of $22.00).

For direct debit, bank details are:
Bank Name: Westpac Banking Corporation
Account Name: Camera Obscura Records
BSB Number: 033018
Account Number: 133347

New Black Sun Ensemble CD Available for Mail Order!

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 03:53:00 +0000

20 years down the track from their debut and the Black Sun Ensemble have come full circle, presenting a pristine, wholly instrumental and semi-acoustic work that recalls their legendary LP debut.

Artist: Black Sun Ensemble
Title: Across the Sea of Id: The Way to Eden
Cat No: CAM083CD, 12 tracks, 52.53 mins approx

About the release:

What started out being a side project between Black Sun Ensemble guitarist/founder Jesus Acedo and multi-instrumentalist Eric Johnson, "Across the Sea of Id: The Way to Eden" has become the final collaborative project of new material from Black Sun Ensemble involving Tucson’s Sun Zoom Spark members and their collective, SlowBurn Records. In fact, "Across the Sea of Id: The Way to Eden" maybe the final Black Sun Ensemble record. After completion of the recording, it remains unclear if Jesus Acedo will choose to continue with music. Because of this, "Across the Sea of Id" may be the capstone of a nearly 25 year career that has created some of the most unique rock music of our time.

"Across the Sea of Id: The Way to Eden" is a dramatic shift away from the heavy ethno/progressive rock of 2006’s Bolt of Apollo CD to an earlier style of semi-acoustic instrumental music that became Black Sun Ensemble signature sound in the 1980s. According to Eric Johnson, “…in the end, BSE has truly come full-circle. "Across the Sea of Id" is the record I have always wanted to make with the Ensemble. It captures what I think makes Jesus Acedo such a huge talent its not about the guitar solos, its about the haunting quality of his song-writing.”

After recording over three hours of material for the project, BSE chose songs that created a rich blend of past and new works. The material, all penned by Acedo and arranged by Johnson, ranges from not only engaging retellings of early work like the majestic Blues for Rainer and a definitive version of the medley Sky Pilot Suite, but also offers a trance-inspired version of St. Cecilia and a more subdued Baphomet’s Curse from "Bolt of Apollo".

However, it is the new material that offers a singular, dreamy vision of BSE’s potentially final works. The two title tracks, Across the Sea of Id and Eden Song, are reflective, yet hallucinatory explorations into Acedo’s unique compositional and melodic sensibility. While Angel de la Guardia has a refined yet explosive rock swagger, it is balanced by the meditation Perelandra and La Paz.

"Across the Sea of Id: The Way to Eden" was recorded and mixed by Eric Johnson at Tucson’s SlowBurn recording studio and was mastered by John Axtell at Signal House Studio. The art for the album was created by BSE percussionist, John Paul Marchand. It's an enhanced CD, featuring a music video directed by John Paul Marchand of BSE’s signature Dove of the Desert, recorded live on radio station KXCI 91.3FM, Tucson.

Check out some sounds:

Go to http://www.cameraobscura.com.au and select "Sounds" from the menu.

Price US$16.00/AU$22.00 including shipping.

Method of payment accepted outside Australia:
Go to: http://www.cameraobscura.com.au to purchase on-line via Paypal.

Method of payment accepted within Australia:
Paypal (use the US$ option), Direct Debit, Bank Deposit (use the AU$ option).

For direct debit, bank details are:
Bank Name: Westpac Banking Corporation
Account Name: Camera Obscura Records
BSB Number: 033018
Account Number: 133347

Rusalnaia CD Now Available for Mail Order!

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:17:00 +0000

Welcome to our first release for 2008. We bring you new psych-folk from Sharron Kraus and Ex-Reverie member Gillian Chadwick. Eight songs influenced in greater or lesser part by Mellow Candle, Trees and Jefferson Airplane and coming out like "gypsies in Bohemia, smoking opium and drinking ginger tea". Luminously Pagan: a soundtrack to Bergman's "The Virgin Spring" rather than "The Wicker Man". Read on...

Artist: Rusalnaia
Title: Rusalnaia
Cat No: CAM082CD, 8 tracks, 38:18 mins approx

About the release:

Rusalnaia is about honouring (some would say placating) the Rusalki - mischievous water nymphs capable of tickling victims to death - with song, dance, tree-decorating and wreath-making. Rusalnaia is what happened when Sharron Kraus and Gillian Chadwick, then neighbours in Fishtown, Philadelphia, became friends and decided to honour the Rusalki in each other! The two, coming from very different musical backgrounds, made journeys into each other's terrain until it was no longer clear what the boundaries were. In the collaborative process they became as close as sisters and found their way to the shared musical aesthetic that is Rusalnaia.

Rusalnaia's album was recorded at Hexham Head Studios in Philadelphia, engineered by Greg Weeks (Espers, The Valerie Project) in two sessions through 2007 that corresponded with Sharron's extended visits to the country. Weeks helped capture the duo's organic and sometimes unusual instrumentation, from dulcimer and guitar to pennywhistles and goat's nail shakers, and contributed his own accents to a few tracks: acid Les Paul leads and vintage 70's synths. Eight tracks of haunting, ritualistic, magical pagan-folk were the result, varying from the darkly processional tale of dispossession "Shifting Sands", though the Comus-like ceremonies of the title track to the extended forest-folk trance of the concluding "Wild Summer".

Sharron Kraus is a singer/musician/songwriter who creates music rooted in the folk traditions of England and Appalachia. Her first two solo albums were released on Camera Obscura to critical acclaim and her third will be released on Durtro on March 10, 2008. She has worked with The Iditarod, Fursaxa, Meg Baird and Helena Espvall, and her most recent release was Right Wantonly A-Mumming, a collection of seasonal songs recorded with an eight-strong host of traditional English folk singers and musicians including Jon Boden, John Spiers, Ian Woods and Fay Hield.

Gillian Chadwick is the creative force behind Ex Reverie, whose debut glam-rock full-length, The Door into Summer, was released by Language of Stone (an imprint of Drag City) on Jan 22, 2008 in the US. In addition to Rusalnaia and Ex Reverie, she also plays lead guitar in the Philadelphia-based dance-prog outfit Golden Ball, and is one-half of the Black Sabbath-tinged duo Woodwose.

Read many reviews of Sharron's work here:
http://www.sharronkraus.com/

Check out some sounds:

Go to http://www.cameraobscura.com.au and select "Sounds" from the menu.
Or visit: http://www.myspace.com/rusalnaia

Price US$16.00/AU$22.00 including shipping.

How to purchase:
Go to: http://www.cameraobscura.com.au to purchase on-line via Paypal.

Linus Pauling Quartet LP Available for Mail Order Now!

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 05:04:00 +0000

Hi folks,

A real pleasure to be able to offer a vinyl release to you - the first one in many moons. This will not last long! Ordering details and release notes follow:

This item is available to order to addresses outside Australia from the CTD Ltd online store http://sakistore.net. Most of the copies are in the USA and therefore best shipped from a reliable on-line mail order service, thus the CTD option was considered best. If having problems or CTD run out, email me and I'll try and hook you up with the band, as they will probably have copies after CTD's are gone. Click here:

Clear Spot in the EU should eventually have copies but I don't think they do yet.

I have a tiny number of copies for Australian mail order customers, so you guys email me if you are interested and I'll get ordering details to you.

About the release:

Artist: Linus Pauling Quartet
Title: All Things Are Light
Cat No: CAM080LP, 7 tracks, 34.44 mins approx (Limited to 500 copies)
Format Details: LP, Purple vinyl, 12 page insert, bonus CDR of LP tracks

About the release:

The Linus Pauling Quartet is one of the most formidable bastions to have risen from the same primordial Texas Psych waters as the Mike Gunn. The band has been tenaciously distilling its chemically induced music over five critically acclaimed if difficult to find albums. The five to seven piece “quartet” is known for putting its three guitars to the floorboard and taking listeners straight off the cliff simply because "anything worth doing is worth overdoing!"

Limited to 500 copies, ‘All Things Are Light’ is The band at its most Herzogian and bombastic, pulling no punches and taking no prisoners. Etched within the grooves, listeners will find epic, guitar-drenched songs about aliens, hallucinogenic psych numbers that turn on you and crush you when you least expect it, drunken brawling garage rock, heavy and dense guitar stomps, a country ode to 40 oz. malt liquor, a punk tribute to cuisine best not discussed in mixed company, and a sprawling sword metal epic; this concluding piece being inspiration for some brilliant insert art from Mike Gunn alumnus John Cramer. Keeping it in the family, Tom Carter (Mike Gunn, Charalambides) weighs in with entertaining liner notes.

If you want finesse, subtlety, and in-depth social commentary stay far away. But if you like your music big, loud and made by knuckle-scraping apes who will beat you with the jawbone of rock, this is the album you’ve been awaiting for.

Press quotes on previous outings:

"A large red sticker proclaiming WEIRD ALERT could not make things plainer." -- Q Magazine (UK)

"Variety through dementia indicative of excessive drug use and boredom" -- Flipside (USA)

"one of the top purveyors of the Texas stoner psychedelic style" - Free City Media (USA)

"..possibly the most enigmatic yet bombastic rock band to emerge out of Texas in the last 10 years." - The Broken Face (Sweden)

"Anthemic, stupid and selflessly unrestrained, the LPQ eventually attain self immolation of sorts during the sprawling chaos."-Ptolemaic Terrascope (UK)

" [the band] should consider doing a few less bong hits" - Option Magazine

Check out MP3s:

Go to http://www.cameraobscura.com.au and select "Sounds" from the menu.

Linus Pauling Quartet LP Out Soon!

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 22:39:00 +0000

Cover Art

The LP4 has been carrying the Texas Psych torch since the Mid-90s. Following in the footsteps of the Mike Gunn and Dry Nod this seven member quartet has been praised in the pages of Ptolemaic Terrascope (UK), Rockerilla (Italy), Magnet (USA), Broken Face (Sweden), et al. Their latest slab of psychedelic riff-carnage will be released on purple vinyl 12" Vinyl LP on 06 November 2007 on Camera Obscura. The release includes a 12 page insert and free CD-R of the album tracks and limited to 500 copies. Ordering links will be provided very soon, so keep checking back. Release notes can be found here. Listen to MP3s from this and other releases here.

Christian Kiefer and Jefferson Pitcher CD Reviews!

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 22:15:00 +0000

Check out what the press are saying here:

All Music Guide (4-Stars)
Ptolemaic Terrascope On-Line
Songs:Illinois

Praise by Broken Face blog: "Christian Kiefer and Jefferson Pitcher’s To All Dead Sailors (Camera Obscura) is a concept album of sorts that explores the mysteries of the sea. Acoustic and electric instruments are combined with field recordings to create a wide palette of oceanic colors. We get the sonic equivalent to its brutality and we get the hard-explained beauty of the crashing sea in its eternal struggle to create physical shapes beyond the world of imagination. But most of all we get tracks that overflow with longing over people lost at sea or people being away from home for too long. It’s an intriguing sonic document that goes from airy fogbanks of sound experiments to graceful, soft-spoken, folk-tinged melancholia with impressive ease. This is one of those hushed, heart aching, and utterly timeless moments when the sum indeed is greater than its parts."

And forthcoming from Dream Magazine: "Christian Kiefer and Jefferson Pitcher To All Dead Sailors (Camera Obscura) Oceanic sounds, water, waves and low spectral traces of instrumental illumination glimpsed through the sea spray begins and ends things. Acoustic guitar deep and resonant, while a fellow softly speaks in Spanish and English as a soft singer carresses a song about a lonely sailor so far from home. Subtle, soft spoken but gently resolute. Sweetly sad story songs, hallucinatory dreamy visions, ambient fogbanks overflowing with cool menace, melancholic prayers, lovely instrumentals and doomed soul’s laments. Shifting from folk-tender, to darkly haunting memories or imaginings. Wind-tossed soundscapes turn into warm family reunions in paradise. Whether Astrolabe was written just to use such a great word in a song or not, may never be known, but it’s a charming chiming thing one way or another. The title track is a sublime sorrowful ballad, but it’s all thematically unified in it’s deep blue hue."

Cool Marianne Nowottny Video

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 23:48:00 +0000

Fresh From Youtube, a video for a new track from her Abaton Book Co release "What Is She Doing?":

And the Nowottny CD on Camera Obscura "Illusion of the Sun" is still available.

Kiefer/Pitcher CD Now Out For Mail Order

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 07:38:00 +0000

We follow up Christian Kiefer's critically acclaimed albums on Camera Obscura ("Czar Nicholas is Dead") and Undertow ("Dogs and Donkeys") with Christian's new and very accessible song-based collaboration with fellow traveler Jefferson Pitcher. The official release date is 02 October, but as usual we offer you, our beloved MySpace customers, the option to purchase from now, well in advance of the street date.

Artist: Christian Kiefer and Jefferson Pitcher

Title: To All Dead Sailors

Cat No: CAM081CD, 14 tracks, 53:04 min

About the release:

The slow shifting hiss of the surf fades. The footsteps of men stumble across the beach rock; a tottering over, facedown. Waves on the stones further out: black, now green, now shadow again. Somewhere, so far under the surface that only the bleakest fish run their dark gunnels: ships rest their masts. Crabs like spiders spin homes in the maw of rock-smashed hull and keel.

It is upon such images that Christian Kiefer and Jefferson Pitcher have built "To All Dead Sailors". A collection of songs, instrumentals, and sonic experiments, this is an album that explores the mystery of the sea: its violence, its beauty, its grace. Through it all, the album tells the story of the men who have chosen a life, and ultimately a death, in its vast expanses. From the story of a haggard submarine captain disgraced amongst his countrymen, to the lonely sound of the ship's engine room, to the tale (borrowed from Pablo Neruda) of a mermaid wandering up onto dry land and into a world she could not have imagined, these are songs and sounds that envelop the listener in a long rumination on things of the sea.

Merging songs with more experimental sounds has long been of interest to both musicians. Pitcher developed his experimental performance as a member of Tintinambulate, a free-improv workshop based in upstate New York and featuring legendary avant-garde musician Pauline Oliveros. His previous albums, including the superb ambient song cycle "I am Not in Spain" (Mudita/Moonpalace), move between songs and sonic textures, displaying his ongoing interest in using sound to create a particular sonic space or location. Pitcher's work is mirrored in Kiefer's, who has a long history of alternating between song and experimental forms, including his recent albums "Czar Nicholas Is Dead" (a mostly-instrumental look at the Russian Revolution on Camera Obscura) and Dogs & Donkeys (a song-based narrative on Undertow).

Listeners may remember Kiefer and Pitcher's previous collaboration: "The Inexplicable Falling" (Mudita), a split full-length CD with Pitcher fronting the now defunct orchestral indie-rock band Above the Orange Trees. Unlike that album, "To All Dead Sailors" is a collaborative project, with the singers trading harmonies and instruments on various tracks, and working through various songwriting ideas as they floated to the surface. Acoustic and electric instruments are combined with field recordings to create a finished project that is reminiscent of Brian Eno's ambient projects, the moody soundscapes of Sigur Rós, and the song-based work of Califone, Xiu Xiu, and Damien Rice.

Press for previous Kiefer releases:

"Dogs and Donkeys":
Pitchfork Review
All Music Guide Review

"Czar Nicholas Is Dead":
Pitchfork Review

Other releases:

"Exodust is the beautiful musical evocation of a page of Americana. Kiefer scavenged through the Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin collections at the Library of Congress, looking for songs and stories by the protagonists. Their narrative, along with creaking chairs, fiddles, singing, etc., establish a strong American folk atmosphere. Where Kiefer's artistry shines is in how his own themes adopt the simplicity of his subject, creating an integrated narrative of its own. - All Music Guide on "Exodust" (Extreme Records 2002)

"Christian Kiefer's music brings the listener directly in contact with a new sonic landscape. The atmosphere is crusty and old, hearkening back to a time when mine shafts dotted the forests. I grew up in the same part of the world and I am intimate with its shape. Kiefer captures it beautifully; his music is the real deal." - Terry Riley reviewing "Welcome to Hard Times" (Extreme Records 2000)

"I have one thing to say about Christian Kiefer: It's GREAT to hear new music!" - Thurston Moore

Check out MP3s:

Go to the Camera Obscura Web Site and select "Sounds" from the menu. Or visit: http://www.myspace.com/saintjoan

Price US$16.00/AU$22.00 including shipping.

Method of payment accepted outside Australia:

Go to: the Camera Obscura web site to purchase on-line via Paypal.

Concealed cash will work for us at a pinch as long as in US$ or AU$. Any
other currency than AU$ add the equivalent of US$7.00 for exchange fee.

Method of payment accepted within Australia:

Paypal (use the US$ option), Direct Debit, Bank Deposit.

For direct debit, bank details are:

Bank Name: Westpac Banking Corporation
Account Name: Camera Obscura Records
BSB Number: 033018
Account Number: 133347

Christian Kiefer and Jefferson Pitcher Collaborate For Upcoming Camera Obscura CD!

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 07:14:00 +0000

Conceptual collaboration between Kiefer and Pitcher. It's a collection of songs, textures, and field recordings related to the sea, seafaring, death, and beauty, and connects to the song-based side of both artists work; exemplified by "Medicine Show" and "Welcome to Hard Times" on Extreme Records, and their split CD from 2002 "The Inexplicable Falling". Release notes can be found here. Links to MP3s can be found here.

Saintly Press For "The Wrecker's Lantern"

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 07:10:00 +0000

Some great reviews of the CD "The Wreckers Lantern" here:

All Music Guide (4-stars)
Delusions of Adequacy
Ptolemaic Terrascope
Stylus Magazine

Saint Joan CD "The Wrecker's Lantern" Now Out

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Wed, 23 May 2007 06:19:00 +0000

Hi folks,

Second release for the year - Saint Joan's debut full length release and long-awaited follow up to their self-released "One at Twilight" mini-album.

Artist: Saint Joan
Title: The Wrecker's Lantern
Cat No: CAM079CD, 10 tracks, 46:06 mins

About the release: The title of Saint Joan's first full length album alludes to the 19th century practice of luring a ship onto the rocks by faking the beam of a lighthouse with a swinging lantern, causing the ship to run aground, its treasure to be plundered. It continues the band's interest in all things maritime…the sea as the subconscious as Carl Jung would have it. The band takes inspiration from Hieronymus Bosch in "The Four Last Things" and The Tempest in "Singing Bowl". They conjure love and loss, seasick sailors and freight trains, hills and mountains, rivers and fading street lights.

The album continues the sound established by band's first release, the 7" single "All Things Melt/The Ice House" as well as the more sparse chamber music leanings of 2005 mini album "One At Twilight". Epic, psychedelic stream-of-consciousness psychodramas about loss like 'December' contrast with the more fragmented, melancholy of "Gone" with its looping guitar and lush strings. The widescreen folk-rock drive of "Singing Bowl", place it alongside vintage Walkabouts.

Recorded in an old warehouse in the autumn "The Wrecker's Lantern" evokes time and place at every turn and yet seeks to transcend them. It is the sound of beauty, timeless and incarnate.

About the band: Saint Joan are five musicians originally West Bridgford in Nottingham, England, Mohacs in Hungary and Strasbourg in France. A few musicians have come and gone much like the English summer but they have settled as they are now, and call on the odd flautist, cellist, vibraphone-player, et al, when the mood takes them.

They are inspired by stream-of-consciousness prose, like James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, by the "darkness on the edge of town", flawed beauty and black comedy. They listen to many things: Nick Cave, The Tindersticks, Jonathan Richman, The Velvets,Tom Waits and Galaxie 500 among them.

Press for previous SJ releases:

"… a wonderful British take on the glow of post-jangle California strum pop" - Byron Coley in The Wire

"Hints of disheveled, Tindersticks- style romance peek out from behind a violin-lined veil of Low-like austerity. Ellen McGee's throaty purr and harrowing falsetto conjures images of a young Polly Harvey communing with 60s folk/blues troubadouress Judy Henske." - Magnet Magazine review of "One at Twilight"

"…sleepy sullen sensuality conjures smoky opiated dreams in the mind of the listener… when Ellen sings, she makes heartache sound like something truly beautiful." - Dream Magazine review of "One at Twilight"

Check out MP3s:

Go to Camera Obscura Web Site and select "Sounds" from the menu. Or visit: http://www.myspace.com/saintjoan

Price US$15.00/AU$22.00 including shipping.

Method of payment accepted outside Australia:

Go to: Camera Obscura Web Site to purchase on-line via Paypal.

Method of payment accepted within Australia:

Paypal (use the US$ option), Direct Debit, Bank Deposit.

For direct debit, bank details are:

Bank Name: Westpac Banking Corporation
Account Name: Camera Obscura Records
BSB Number: 033018
Account Number: 133347

Saint Joan's "The Wrecker's Lantern" coming in June

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Tue, 08 May 2007 01:31:00 +0000

We are proud to announce the imminence of the much awaited debut full-length CD from night-side Nottingham folk-rockers Saint Joan, set to consolidate the reputation established by the magnificent 2005 mini-album "One at Twilight". Echoes of PJ Harvey, Opal, The Walkabouts and even Joy Division coalesce into a beautiful new form of dream pop. "A wonderful British take on the glow of post-jangle Californian strum pop" quoth Byron Coley in The Wire.

Visit them at the Saint Joan web site or on their MySpace page for more info and goodies.

Cover art:

Major Press Love for Tanakh's "Saunders Hollow"!

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Tue, 08 May 2007 01:27:00 +0000

What they said!

"Lush with strings, vibraphone, and Campbell's ethereal backing vocals, this gorgeous track kicks off the Poulos era with a prolonged, ecstatic sigh, the full group carried along by the song's supple currents for seven time-collapsed minutes." From the 7.5 scored Pitchfork Review

" Saunders Hollow explores an aesthetic of restrained, mysterious beauty, a combination of a processional and a stately and poised collapse." From the 4-star All Music Guide Review

"Like a barefoot stroll through tall, soft grass on a lazy Summer afternoon." Ptolemaic Terrascope

" Hot on the heels of its acclaimed "Ardent Fevers" record, Tanakh releases its “sister” Saunders Hollow, which focuses on member Michele Poulos’ acid folk pop, rather than leader Jesse Poe’s psychedelic ruminations. Poulos’ songs are simply lovely, with singing to match. And if the band is following its usual improvisational tack, it must be the most sympathetic group of musicians ever, as every arrangement is tasteful and supportive of Poulos’ vision. “Longer Than Sorrow,” the rocked-up “Kept” and “Marcel Proust” are divinely pretty, emotionally filling and damned irresistible. Saunders Hollow is one of the nicest surprises and Tanakh one of the freshest discoveries I’ve made in a long time." High Bias Web Zine

Deserted Village Article Just Posted on PT Site

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 05:59:00 +0000

The latest long-form article from this source is an interview with Gavin Prior and Dave Colohan on the subject of the ruling Irish underground label du jour - Deserted Village. You can find it here.

Here's a taster from the introduction:

In 1770, Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith (best known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield and his play She Stoops to Conquer) wrote an epic poem - The Deserted Village - in memory of his brother. In the poem, Goldsmith uses near hallucinogenic imagery to evoke a sense of landscape and life on the land, in a time when modernization was dispossessing the land's original inhabitants and changing its character irrevocably. Fast forward to the early 21^st Century, and the abiding sense of melancholy beauty conjured by Goldsmith in this work applies equally to the works of a new wave of underground Irish musicians orbiting micro-brewed labels like Deserted Village, Deadslackstring and Rusted Rail. These labels exist as a natural extension of these collectivist endeavours, because without them there would be little other way for their music to be heard. Pre-eminent among these is Deserted Village, with some 30-or-so releases to its name in a handful of year's existence.

Deserted Village started as a way to release the work of drone-improvisation outfit Murmansk, which itself grew out of an improvisation workshop conducted by the legendary Eddie Prevost-led ensemble AMM. Their complex future course was signposted by a second CD-R release, 'Music from the Deserted Village', which contained everything from drone to free jazz to lo-fi bedroom pop oddities to pristine psychedelic folk. (Go to their web site: like a number of the early Deserted Village releases you can download it for free now.) A string of releases explored these avenues; some accessible like underrated releases by Townparks Foundry and The Cosmic Nanou, and some gnarly and confronting, like releases by Amygdala, Wrecking Ball, and Weapons of Mass Destruction. And the drone continued with a second Murmansk CD-R and Agitated Radio Pilot's superbly evocative 'A Drifting Population'. Central to the label was the United Bible Studies collective concept, represented directly by the 'Stations of the Sun, Transits of the Moon', 'Airs of Sun and Stone' and the masterful 'The Shore that Fears the Sea', but also represented indirectly by nearly everything else, and most strikingly by the acoustic project Magickal Folk of the Faraway Tree, whose two CD-Rs were snapped up be fans and collectors on release. Fear not though, a compilation CD of the MFFT material is forthcoming.

New Black Sun Ensemble Interview

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 23:02:00 +0000

Aural Innovations Webzine have posted a revealing interview with members of Black Sun Ensemble here. There is also an odd but ecstatic review of the "Bolt of Apollo" CD on the same page.

2006 In Review for Deep Water Zine

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 06:58:00 +0000

Some thoughts on the best releases of 2006 are posted here. Also check out the thoughts of my fellow Deep Water scribes Kevin Moist, Mats Gustafsson and Lee Jackson.

A sample of the introduction is here:

This is the time of year I like to call "nailing smoke to a wall time". With the proliferation of releases on CD and LP on major and minor labels, and the explosion of artifacts issued by the handmade CD-R underground, chances of actually hearing more than an infinitesimal sample of what's going on are slim, and add to that the increasing impact of download only releases and you've got an exercise on par with sorting out the shenanigans of quantum particles. Nonetheless, here is a selection of ten releases that stayed with me more than briefly - works that in effect became invisible co-travelers in the hurtling rail cart that was my passage through 2006. More.

Tanakh CD Now Available for Mail Order

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 05:32:00 +0000

We're off and flying for the new year with our first 2007 release, Tanakh's "Saunders Hollow". We're particularly excited to bring you this, as it's the first release the band has done which hasn't been on the Alien8 label. Official street date is 14th Feb, but you can grab early bird copies by following the instructions at the end of this post.

Artist: Tanakh
Title: Saunders Hollow
Cat No: CAM078CD 8 tracks, 46:46 mins

About the release: Recorded the week before Ardent Fevers (already being hailed by critics as one of the best releases of 2006), in the same studio, with the same engineer (Bryan Hoffa), and with the same cast of musicians, Saunders Hollow, is not a collection of out-takes from those sessions, but a fully realised sister record to Ardent Fevers. Growing out of the song-writing explorations of Michele Poulos and Jesse Poe, Saunders Hollow is a record focusing on the songs of Poulos, who gave them to Poe in the form of thumb-strummed singer/songwriter demos. The results form a female Yin to the male Yang of recent Tanakh work. From the opening seconds of Poe's tortured guitar squalling to the final seconds of fading footsteps, bowed bass and saw that seal the record, the listener is treated to a million sounds all gently gelling into the world of sonic beauty we have come to expect from Tanakh, except for one thing…Tanakh in their ever changing exploration of sound have placed the lead vocals and songwriting in the ladybird hands of bassist and erstwhile backing vocalist Michele Poulos, leaving Poe in the musician/producer seat, dividing Poulos' previous backing vocal duties between himself and Isobel Campbell. What results is warm bouquet of songs that range from poppy-jazz, through renaissance remembrances, sweet folk, to dark drones and dreamy electronics and even straight up raunchy blues. Saunders Hollow is a place full of inviting mystery and rich texture, with musical twists and turns of every type, leaving the listener in a state of remembrance of all things past, like a stroll amongst Proustian Gardens. Gentle bass, scorching electric guitars, lilting tablas, Asian-strummed ukuleles, swirling electronics, lamenting violins, pulsing vibes, regal harpsichords, gospel organs and juke-joint pianos, sex-driven saxophones, folky acoustic guitars, sound-scaped lap steels, pulsing drums, and honeyed vocals grow together in an immense garden of sound and color that populates the dream landscape of Saunders Hollow.

About Tanakh: Tanakh is the banner for music written and improvised by a collective of musicians; music that is focused towards beauty and experimentation within structure instead of towards a particular musical genre or style. In the last six or so years this revolving collective has included a large number of musicians headed up by principle songwriter Jesse Poe. Although currently residing in Florence, Italy, Poe comes from a background of American rural music. His great-grandfather wrote country ballads and his great aunts and uncle had a live radio program broadcast out of Indiana. Tanakh has released a series of critically acclaimed CDs for the Alien8 label including "Villa Claustrophobia" (2002), "Dieu Deuil" and "s/t" (2004) and "Ardent Fevers" (2006).

Press for previous LB releases:

"Opulent and low key, gilded and grimy, humid and gorgeous." Ian Penman on "Villa Claustrophobia" for The Wire, July 2002. "Enhanced, groove-centered propulsion punctuated by the frequent Muscle Shoals-style horns, dustbowl lap steel, and a surprising abundance of hypercharged, Crazy Horse guitar soloing." Pitchfork reviewing "Ardent Fevers", April 06

Check out MP3s:

Go to the Camera Obscura Web Site and select "Sounds" from the menu. Or visit: http://www.myspace.com/poulostanakh

Price US$15.00/AU$22.00 including shipping.

Go to: Camera Obscura Web Site to purchase on-line via Paypal.

Agitated Radio Pilot Column for Deep Water

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 06:31:00 +0000

I just penned a column for Deep Water covering eight releases by Irish outfit Agitated Radio Pilot:

You can read it here.

Intro:

Irishman Dave Colohan is a central figure in the United Bible Student movement, his voice unmistakable, his presence always felt. When you get your hands on an Agitated Radio Pilot release (they can be elusive) and wrap your ears around its melancholy pleasures, it's clear that the music of ARP is a conduit for Colohan's most personal thoughts and feelings, which are presented unfiltered (mostly) by the collaborative imperatives of other familial projects like United Bible Studies and Magickal Folk of the Faraway Tree. When seven ARP releases came across my desk in a quite short space of time, the opportunity to round 'em up and make some kind of sense of the project's progress seemed too good to pass up. For the sake of completeness Your Turn to Go It Alone, which was received somewhat earlier (though still in 2006), is included. More.

2006 In Review

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 07:56:00 +0000

In looking back at the kind of 2006 that Camera Obscura had, like 2005 it seemed very much a case of one step forward and two steps back. Or maybe only one step back, I'm not really sure. Like 2005, the label only released four new titles, and I'm hoping we're at the bottom of some kind of parabola there. In any case lots of good stuff happened, and bad as well.

On the up side, we continue to get offered great projects, to the extent that a fair bit of discipline is required not to just got out and borrow a shitload of money to get them done. Much of that hasn't come through in the schedule yet, but it will in 2007. I was stunned to be offered a Tanakh release, and that will be out early in the new year. It's their first release not to be on Alien8, and showcases the might songwriting and vocal chops of Tanakh member Michele Poulos. I was also blown away to be offered the debut full-lengther by Saint Joan to release, and it's a cracker. I'm also pretty excited to be releasing United Bible Studies' follow up to "The Shore That Fears the Sea", one of the best releases of 2006 IMHO. The Carnival compilation keeps expanding, and will get done when the funds are there - a grant will probably be needed. Also on the good side, I finally got some Shopping Cart e-commerce happening on the web site, and it's a lot easier for folks to order our stuff now. Lots of Lucky Bishops and Black Sun Ensemble CDs got ordered that way, and it was good to see that plenty of punters picked up back-catalog as well. Should have done it several years ago, really. Lot's of good (mainly web) reviews this year, too, including on Pitchfork and in Harp, which shouldn't be as big a deal as it seems to be, but there you are.

On the down side, the AUS-US exchange rate is killing cash-flow in death-of-a-thousand-cuts fashion. We just get less and less back for stuff sold in US$, which is a lot of our sales %-wise. The distributor world shifted on its axis with Caroline being bought out, and pretty much getting out of the indie game. It remains to be seen if others can fill the breach. But we're lucky to have CTD, Midheaven, Clear Spot and others, who care about the music, are pretty honorable in their dealings and always seem to rise above in the end. Piracy is probably killing our sales to some extent, as is our absence from iTunes, which may have to change next year, much as I don't want to sell stuff that way. I'll try it with the Tanakh release and see how it goes. Fewer and fewer print journals review our stuff, and there are no resources to change that. As discussed on this list earlier in the year, some magazines have adopted a bunker mentality against the volume of music out there, and it's hard to crack. There is so much stuff coming out of the CD-R underground now that these traditional forums for review are being left behind anyway. This is the first year in a long time that I've trouble compiling a top 10 list because of too much stuff, rather than not enough. I now have a baker's dozen for the year, which seems to change from day-to-day:

Agitated Radio Pilot "Your Turn To Go It Alone" (Rusted Rail 2x3" CD-R)
Anton Barbeau "In the Vilage of the Apple Sun" (Four-Way)
Nick Castro and the Young Elders "Come Into Our House" (SAAH)
Comets on Fire "Avatar" (Sub Pop)
Current 93 "Black Ships Ate the Sky"(Durtro)
Elf Power "Back to the Web" (Rykodisc)
Espers "II" (Drag City)
Fern Knight "Music For Witches and Alchemists" (VHF)
Flying Canyon - s/t (Soft Abuse)
Handsome Family "Last Days of wonder" (Carrot Top)
Meg Baird/Helena Espvall/Sharron Kraus "Leaves From Off the Tree" (Bo' Weavil)
Tanakh "Ardent Fevers" (Alien 8)
United Bible Studies "Shore That Fears the Sea" (Deserted Village)

So as to 2007, the scrawled back-of-the-beer coaster Camera obscura schedule looks something like this:

CAM078CD Tanakh "Saunders Hollow" (Feb 07, mail order from early Jan)
CAM079CD Saint Joan "The Wrecker's Lantern" (April 07)
CAM080CD United Bible Studies (May/Jun 07)
CAM081CD Christian Kiefer and Jeff Pitcher "For All the Dead Sailors" (Jun/Jul 07)

Carnival Compilation (2 or 3 CD set) maybe around mid-year.

Releases hoped for later in 2007, a new Alphane Moon CD, a new Fell CD, and Sharron Kraus and Gillian Chadwick as "Rusalnaia", we'll see what comes in and what funds are available.

Anyway, I wish everyone all the best for 2007, and may bad wars end, bad governments fall, and Peace, Love and Understanding reign, hippie-style.

td.

Tanakh "Saunders Hollow" Cover Art

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 07:36:00 +0000

Thanks to Chia-chi Charlie Chang for the stunning imagery that will house the forthcoming Tanakh CD. Here is the front cover...

Bo' Weavil Interview for the Ptolemaic Terrascope

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 07:22:00 +0000

I recently interviewed Mark from Bo' Weavil here. It was a fast an fun interview, with a great label owner who had never been interview before. Check it out if you've a mind to. Here's some intro as a taster:

In an industry dominated by the venal, the mediocre and the exploitative, just occasionally there comes along a label that seems to exist purely to celebrate the music itself. It shouldn't be rare but it seems to be. If you were to put together a dream brief for the kind of label that might ensure the continuance of music in hard formats like LP and CD, it might read something like London label Bo Weavil's statement of intent:

Bo Weavil Recordings is a new London based imprint dedicated to releasing on to vinyl and CD great music that has been long out of print, or never had a release before. The label's intention is to put out some lost gems from the wealth of traditional folk music and avant-garde / free music, while also releasing records cataloguing the current scene of avant folk music from around the globe.

Pretty ambitious, but a perusal of the label's prolific output between inception at the end of 2004 and now shows that they've pulled it off so far. Starting out with archival releases of old-timey goodness by maverick US musician, composer and philosopher Henry Flynt in deluxe vinyl editions, the label rapidly moved on to secure the LP release rights to several classic Shirley Collins LPs, as well as Anne Briggs' complete Topic recordings. Along side that, innovative acoustic guitar releases by the likes of Sir Richard Bishop and James Brayshaw solidified the label's reputation and they ventured into the avant-garde as well with "Free London" projects like The Eidetic Band, Ladywoodsman, Rob Mullender and Wooden Spoon. What makes the label really cohesive is that even their most outré offerings link back to some kind of folk tradition. The label has a massive 2007 planned, so we thought we might catch label owner Mark Morris between breaths and have a chat.

Terrascope-Online: Who is involved with Bo' Weavil and when did the label come into existence?

Bo' Weavil: Bo’ Weavil is just myself, and obviously the artists involved. It came into existence in November 2004 with the release of Henry Flynt’s records 'Back Porch Hillbilly Blues Vol 1 & 2' and 'I Don't Wanna'. The first idea for the label was to reissue the Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music, but Folkways cannot license this material, as they have licensed the majority of it from smaller old 78 labels. So the Flynt records were next in line in my head, so I made contact with Locust and they were totally up for it.

It's quite unusual for a label to have a twin focus on the retrospective and the current. What led you to decide on that as the label's stated mission?

I basically wanted to run a label that dealt with the music I feel most passionately about, so for me that meant reissuing records that are hard to get on vinyl, and dealing with contemporary music as well. But also there are a few labels that also do the same today…Locust and Time-Lag spring to mind.

Read more here.

Tanakh CD for Camera Obscura

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 07:12:00 +0000

Camera Obscura is pleased to announce the forthcoming release of the latest Tanakh CD "Saunders Hollow", a sister record to the Alien8 release "Ardent Fevers", featuring the same musicians, but focusing on the songs and vocals of member Michele Poulos. This is the first release by Tanakh not to be on Alien8, and we feel privileged to have it. Mail order copies will be available from around 08 Jan 07, and the release has a street date of 14 Feb 06 (Happy Valentine Day folks!). For goodies, check out the links after the description below:

Recorded the week before Ardent Fevers (already being hailed by critics as one of the best releases of 2006), in the same studio, with the same engineer (Bryan Hoffa), and with the same cast of musicians, Saunders Hollow, is not a collection of out-takes from those sessions, but a fully realised sister record to Ardent Fevers. Growing out of the song-writing explorations of Michele Poulos and Jesse Poe, Saunders Hollow is a record focusing on the songs of Poulos, who gave them to Poe in the form of thumb-strummed singer/songwriter demos. The results form a female Yin to the male Yang of recent Tanakh work. From the opening seconds of Poe's tortured guitar squalling to the final seconds of fading footsteps, bowed bass and saw that seal the record, the listener is treated to a million sounds all gently gelling into the world of sonic beauty we have come to expect from Tanakh, except for one thing…Tanakh in their ever changing exploration of sound have placed the lead vocals and songwriting in the ladybird hands of bassist and erstwhile backing vocalist Michele Poulos, leaving Poe in the musician/producer seat, dividing Poulos' previous backing vocal duties between himself and Isobel Campbell. What results is warm bouquet of songs that range from poppy-jazz, through renaissance remembrances, sweet folk, to dark drones and dreamy electronics and even straight up raunchy blues. Saunders Hollow is a place full of inviting mystery and rich texture, with musical twists and turns of every type, leaving the listener in a state of remembrance of all things past, like a stroll amongst Proustian Gardens. Gentle bass, scorching electric guitars, lilting tablas, Asian-strummed ukuleles, swirling electronics, lamenting violins, pulsing vibes, regal harpsichords, gospel organs and juke-joint pianos, sex-driven saxophones, folky acoustic guitars, sound-scaped lap steels, pulsing drums, and honeyed vocals grow together in an immense garden of sound and color that populates the dream landscape of Saunders Hollow.

About the band:

Tanakh is the banner for music written and improvised by a collective of musicians; music that is focused towards beauty and experimentation within structure instead of towards a particular musical genre or style. In the last six or so years this revolving collective has included a large number of musicians headed up by principle songwriter Jesse Poe. Although currently residing in Florence, Italy, Poe comes from a background of American rural music. His great-grandfather wrote country ballads and his great aunts and uncle had a live radio program broadcast out of Indiana. Tanakh has released a series of critically acclaimed CDs for the Alien8 label including "Villa Claustrophobia" (2002), "Dieu Deuil" and "s/t" (2004) and "Ardent Fevers" (2006).

Press quotes on previous outings:

"Opulent and low key, gilded and grimy, humid and gorgeous." Ian Penman on "Villa Claustrophobia" for The Wire, July 2002.

"Enhanced, groove-centered propulsion punctuated by the frequent Muscle Shoals-style horns, dustbowl lap steel, and a surprising abundance of hypercharged, Crazy Horse guitar soloing." Pitchfork reviewing "Ardent Fevers", April 06

Tanakh on MySpace

Michele Poulos on MySpace

MP3 From this Release on this C-O Page

Black Sun Ensemble CD out in the World

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 07:00:00 +0000

Jeez, it seems like forever since I updated this blog, partly due to inertia and partly due to the damn slow loading of the blogger control panel over my VSAT connection. It seems much improved over the magnificent Firefox 2.0, so expect regular updates from now on. Since the last update, we've released the latest Black Sun Ensemble CD "Bolt of Apollo" and folks seems to be liking it OK. Here are some reviews:

Ptolemaic Terrascope
High Bias
Psychotropic Zone

It's ready for mail order from the Camera Obscura Web Site, or all good stores and etailers now.

Release notes can be found here. Links to MP3s can be found here.

New Black Sun Ensemble CD Cover Art

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 12:18:00 +0000

Coming Soon - New Black Sun Ensemble CD "Bolt of Apollo"

noreply@blogger.com (Camera Obscura Records) — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 12:16:00 +0000

Camera Obscura Records is proud to celebrate Black Sun Ensemble's 20th anniversary with the release of their 11th studio release, "Bolt of Apollo". A mostly instrumental album, "Bolt of Apollo" effectively fuses the sun-baked, raga-esque qualities of the Ensemble with other influences ranging from British Invasion, progressive rock and ambient music. As always, the common thread is the electrifying guitar work of Jesus Acedo.

Recorded and mixed at SlowBurn studios, Black Sun Ensemble takes another giant step forward with this all instrumental recording. Members of Tucson's Sun Zoom Spark return with guitarist/honcho Jesus Angel del Paz (a.k.a. BSE founder Jesus Acedo) to follow up 2003's "Starlight" CD. In addition to the returning line-up, Bolt of Apollo features power-house drummer Ernie Mendoza and some guitarwork by former Sidewinder's guitarist, Rich Hopkins.
The material presented in "Bolt of Apollo" is extraordinary. From the middle-eastern meditations of "The Shining One" and "The Mecurial Incense of Melquiades" to the progressive explosiveness of "Heart of the Master" and "Scarlet Woman", to the ethnic-rock fusion of "St. Cecilia", "Bolt of Apollo" showcases fiery performances from the Ensemble while, as always, featuring mind-blowing fret work by guitar wizard Acedo. This synthesis of styles led one writer for the Austin Chronicle to describe Black Sun Ensemble as "...absolutely, amazingly, singular in the world of rock music."

"Bolt of Apollo" is also an enhanced CD with a video encoded onto each disc to be played in any PC or Macintosh computer. The video for "Jewel of the Seven Stars" from the "Starlight" CD, was directed by former Cesare's Dog vocalist Jonathan Levitt and shot on location in Beijing China.

Artwork for the release was created by Chicago artist Ben Johnston. The layout tells the story of the Daphne who is kidnapped by the trickster Baphomet. The sun-god Apollo hears her cries for help and vanquishes Baphomet with an arrow, the Bolt of Apollo. Before Baphomet dies, he curses Apollo with an eclipse -turning the sun black. The layout also features poetry by Acedo to accompany each track of the album.