Presenting the long lost album produced with Josh Hanson, in the year 2009, titled 2009. Truth be told, it was published once before, but I took it down, remastered it, and got in touch with Josh again to discuss having it up permanently. We needed to clear up a few things about its release.
The music is different, something that only Josh could have initiated. Step 1: Josh transfers 4-track cassette recordings onto my Pro Tools 5 rig. Step 2: I remix those soundscapes and contribute additional tracks. I shared my progress but he didn’t interfere, and eventually we met for the third step of mastering.
Josh used his own modular analog synthesis rack to record into the Tascam Portastudio. I used my ARP Odyssey Mk2 and Roland Vk1.
Mastering took place in KBOO studios using Adobe Audition software, version 1. That software did pretty well, even though it was a destructive process, meaning you reshape the digital waveform over and over, rather than running it through real-time plugins, or better yet analog audio equipment. You are stuck with each step rather than tweaking settings on the fly.
Once the album was mastered, Josh had ideas about how it should be released, there was a specific indie record label that he had in mind. And we didn’t have cover art. Originally I named our “band” Paradeux, and the album Animitta. It was pretentious honestly.
Something about me back then was extremely impatient and would jump the gun, forcing others to respond, rather than patiently communicate and compromise until a final product is achieved.
This impulse to just get things done be damned the quality of presentation led to a deep frustration between Josh and myself, because I took the music and made a quick and crappy header and posted it to Bandcamp.
If we were trying to get it out through a label, we can’t have it available already. As a result, the release went nowhere. He didn’t promote it and we didn’t talk for years.
So, one day I decided that I wanted this album on streaming services, so I emailed him. By this time, we were not in a feud, in fact, he was over it. But I like resolution, and closure.
So I asked if he’d be cool if I released it, and this time, no band name, no solo tracks (we both had one solo composition on the original release), that we’d agree on all details in advance. He said yes. So I remastered it and sent the copy to Josh and there were no problems.
The album artwork is very simple. It is an iPhone image taken of a glass sculpture by the artist who made it: Heidi Schwegler. This would be in Joshua Tree, California, at her materials lab.
The music is an aesthetic journey that evokes surreality, and personally I see images of desert landscapes, ocean coasts, deep skies, dark caverns, machines, and stuff I usually relate to when I’m on mushrooms.
This music might be heavily THC-induced (at least my contribution) but I wasn’t doing psychedelics at this time.
Heidi’s glass sculpture blends into the ocean blue sky against a desert landscape, white puffy clouds, and this weird squirrel head on a rock, I felt like this photo (that to Heidi was just an instagram post) relates to most of the aesthetic of the album. And nobody had to lift a finger to make it into a cover.
I tried putting text over the image and around the white border, but none of it looked right. So I left off the text, especially given that this is a streaming copy, and listeners see that information. If I print an album, I can do any number of things, including the use of alternative artwork.
The album is now available on all streaming services. It can also be downloaded from Bandcamp. Please add it to your collection or pay for a download.
This music is also available for free streaming without an account at thru.media/2009-album. This is a value-for-value music album.