The Jane Eastlight-directed video for ALAK's "Because surprises change so little" has debuted on Pitchfork.  Catch it here...

"Clarinettis Qoonotations: Too Many Notes." fucking preternatural and the golden weave of g-nashing teeth, is the long awaited new full-length release from California-based musician Jocelyn Noir's ALAK (formerly Alas, alak, Alaska!).

Noir's album is permeated by a strange Gothic air. A heavy, hanging dark smoke that twists and turns itself into animated baroque swirls, occasionally clearing to reveal a blindingly clear light.

This is a special record.

Available now on CD or pay-what-you-like download

Compact Disc comes deluxe-packaged in a 7" sleeve with foldout poster & Tyvek CD envelope. £7 including worldwide P+P from:
Kaleidoscope

High quality name-your-price download with cover art etc available from here:
alak.bandcamp.com/


ALAK "Clarinettis Qoonotations: Too Many Notes." fucking preternatural and the golden weave of g-nashing teeth
I. Alas, runners.
II. Because surprises change so little
III. Finick While Clicking It's Fingers
4: burning circles
V: Tha Ginseng Jissup
VV: Key Drum Catawba
OO: pumpkin teeth are soft but have low low brass-o.
8: Juniper the Arrows
9: Crystal Power Attack
X. Wooleathe Mneathe
11: Tragos Ode
XII: STARK FOOL (STRAW PYRAMID)
13: Tha Eighther

Click the photo above or the words below to visit the ALAK page & hear some of the new songs.

myspace.com/alasalakalaska/

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K*CD002
Champagne Diamond/The Brilliant Light

Across the delicate and lovingly produced album, bittersweet boy-girl vocals interweave with found sounds, minimal guitar lines, and numerous bits of exotic instrumentation to devastating effect.

The reverse of the release sports a list of soundmaking devices that reads like the components of some kind of incantory ritual, spanning from the traditional - acoustic guitar, Chinese hand-drum - to the mysteriously ambiguous - water, BKC bicycle - and the specifically strange - Marsona Sleep Machine, Mr Riyaz Tabla Machine.

Well, the spell seems to have worked, leaving traces of strange magic all over this intimate and singular release.

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K*CD003
Various - '14 ways to push air'

The hugely anticipated (and delayed) compilation '14 ways to push air'. More details soon.

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K*CD004 / K*CD005
'Clarinettis Qoonotations: Too Many Notes. fucking preternatural and golden weave of g-nashing teeth', is the long awaited new full-length release from California-based musician Jocelyn Noir's Alas, alak, Alaska!. Taking the traditional singer-songwriter form as a jump-off point, her complex and unique melodic approach is a force to be reckoned with, underpinned by a Burroughs-esque manipulation of language that is intelligent, beautiful and affecting.

This is a special record.

Clarinettis Qoonotations will grace the airwaves early 2009 along with patten's 'Sketching the Tesseract'.

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K*AE001 - Arch-M "Mountain-Tan Commercials"


To tide you over on the run up to the 2-disc set from Champagne Diamond/The Brilliant Light, this free 7 track release from Arch-M marks the launch of our Aether series of download-only treats. A collaborative/split release with Kaleidoscope & Cavern, "Mountain Tan Commercials" comes ahead of Arch-M's 12" vinyl release "Moon-Tan", due soon on the Cavern label.
Over 7 gorgeous tracks, concise electric guitar figures gleam with soft distortion and a luscious reverb. Clattering percussion falls around with unrestrained urgency, and a precision that belies it's apparent spontenaiety. Melodies - like old friends fondly remembered - swim in your head long after the ecstatic nine minutes is over.

A must-have to accompany the peaking summer.

DOWNLOAD

Also available as a limited edition audio tape version from: corey@ccaavveerrnn.org

The new Kaleidoscope website is now live.

k-is-for-kaleidoscope.com

Kevin Quigley and Jim Hammond's ICA podcast, The Experiment features a mini-profile of Kaleidoscope in the current edition (July). Tune in to hear songs from Champagne Diamond/The Brilliant Light, Alas alak Alaska!, and Roj Stevens.

Here it is:

THE EXPERIMENT