New Bird Sounds, by David Brown

New Bird Sounds

by David Brown

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Limited Edition Repeater Cassette
Cassette + Digital Album
High-bias cassette tape with 'New Bird Sounds', in full, repeating on both sides.

Includes unlimited streaming of New Bird Sounds via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	a changing skyline 03:52		buy track
2.	birds singing in english, mysteriously 03:10	lyrics	buy track
see the sky feel the wind all around you it's all around you
3.	elephants sentencing their peers 03:00		buy track
4.	cats walking single file 02:32		buy track
5.	a slow walk in an empty street at night 01:48		buy track
6.	january 31 forever 08:02		buy track
7.	turning to look one last time before shutting the door 01:47		buy track
8.	ascending through snow 05:28		buy track
9.	a truck radio plays vaya con dios in the distance as the sun rises, right on cue 05:53		buy track

about

These are the most intentional recordings I have ever made. I have been wondering for years if I would ever make a record that aligned with my listening habits.

“Would I actually listen to this?” The answer has generally been no.

My favorite music communicates viscerally yet calmly. You have to lean into it, but once you do you can feel its embrace. A conversation via eye contact with unmistakeable clarity. Collective understanding and transformation through individualistic hypnotism. “This may be my last time singing” chanted until the words are only sounds and the congregation lays in the aisles, cup filled. A spiritual dialysis. Not sure if I did that, exactly, but you can be the judge.

NEW BIRD SOUNDS is a small cross section of pieces I composed and recorded after a severe mental breakdown, and while dealing with extreme levels of anxiety and depression. It is a marriage of patterns and loops found in long-form tape collages, improvisation, extreme editing, and collaboration with trusted friends. I think that the result is a victory rather than a wallow, and that by the end of the album listeners will find themselves, just as I did, at the edge of the treeline looking down at the river they could always hear while in the darkness of the woods, with proof that it was indeed real all along. Waiting, in motion.

Part Two (which begins with "January 31 Forever") is dedicated to the memory of my late Aunt Joni and I consider it to be one piece, composed as a eulogy to a beautiful person.

Special Thanks to Kevin Ohlau, Diederik van Wassenaer, Drake Ritter, Kay Robertson, and Caleb Hickman for their contributions, support, and encouragement. Thanks to Medium Sound for the faith, Mark Tester for the artwork, and John Dawson for mastering. Endless love, as always, to Jenny Christie for everything you are.

Hope you dig it.

Love,
David

credits

released May 13, 2022

Released by MEDIUM SOUND in Spring 2022.

[side a]

"a changing skyline"
DB: drums, percussion, electric piano, tape loops and manipulation

"birds singing in english, mysteriously"
DB: tape loops and manipulation, acoustic guitar, percussion, vocals
Kay Robertson: Vocals
Caleb Hickman: Vocals

"elephants sentencing their peers"
DB: tape loops and manipulation, piano
Diederik van Wassenaer: violin, viola

"cats walking single file"
DB: bells, synths, percussion, bass, electric guitar
Diederik van Wassenaer: violin, viola

"a slow walk in an empty street at night"
DB: piano

***

[side b]
(for Aunt Joni)

"january 31 forever"
DB: synths, guitar, percussion

"turning to look one last time before shutting the door"
DB: synth, organ, drums
Drake Ritter: pedal steel

"ascending through snow"
DB: piano, electric piano, organ, synths, percussion
Kevin Ohlau: alto and tenor saxophones, clarinet

"a truck radio plays vaya con dios in the distance as the sun rises right on cue"
DB: tape loops and manipulation, electric piano, synth, bass
Kevin Ohlau: tenor saxophone

***

Written, recorded, and mixed by David Brown at Pale Bird’s Eye in Bloomington, IN, 2021.
String arrangement on “cats walking single file” by Diederik van Wassenaer.
Horn arrangement on “ascending through snow” by Kevin Ohlau.
Mastered by John Dawson.
Art + design by Mark Tester.

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about

David Brown Bloomington, Indiana

Helicopters fly overhead. Cars rush by the window. Talkin' Neo-Nothing Blues. Escalators and hammering. A media grape-stomping.

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