good weather up here... i'm working on a new full length album and thinking about future plans. in the meantime:
Concern "Spatium" 8" lathe will be released sometime this year by Peasant Magik. It will consist of an early version of "Heartsink" and an extended version of "Young Birth." I'm really happy to have versions of both those pieces on vinyl. Should be a really nice but very limited release.
http://www.peasantmagik.net/Also, Aquarius and Boomkat both wrote really nice reviews of the "Truth + Distance" CD (co-released by Digitalis and Iatrogenesis).
if you're interested, here they are:
(AQUARIUS:) "One of several new releases on the always kick ass Digitalis label, this one from a one man band called Concern, that one man being Gordon Ashworth, little brother of Owen Ashworth of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, as well as a member of the late great Peyote Calamity, a weird heavy outfit, who sadly never released a proper record, but neither of those bands necessarily hint at the sounds to be found here. Utilizing a vast collection of instruments and noise making devices, zither, lap harp, mbira, banjo, piano, clarinet, trombone, accordion, acoustic guitar and alto horn, Ashworth blurs all those various instruments into long streaks of hazy drone-y dreaminess. Three tracks, all long, all gorgeously lush and textured, strangely melodic and propulsive for a sound that tends toward a more static drift.
Opener "Truth And Distance" bristles with energy, a glowing warm shimmer, the edges growing ever sharper as the songs sprawls outward, from a hushed whisper to a mighty heart of the sun ur-drone, the sound raw and organic, the core a deep unwavering drone, but the sound is like a stream, carrying all manner of glitch and hum, stray bits of disembodied guitar, melodic fragments, eventually transforming into a strange abstract Appalachia, a soft swirling tangle of upper register buzz and and skittery processed tones, definitely some of the most divine drones we've heard.
The first track is well over half the total length of the record, but the second two tracks, while shorter, are just as beautiful and epic. "Young Birth" builds from hushed whir to almost symphonic sounding majesty, a warped otherworldly new age, all tranquil and blissed out, the various tones overlapping and intertwining before fading out in a soft flurry of crackle and hum. While the final track, "Heartsink", begins all raw and fuzzy and almost heavy with a Tim Hecker sort of vibe, only to shift gears, and allow the sound of the various instruments to become distinct and identifiable. Which in no way means the sound is any less dreamlike, soft shimmers of heavily reverbed piano drift weightlessly in an expanse of soft muted melodies, the overtones creating distant drone-y swells, the result a lovely abstract sort of classical chamber dronemusic, so so so nice.
Essential listening for the drone inclined, and any one into Tim Hecker, Aidan Baker, Fennesz, Belong and the like might just have a new favorite record. "
http://aquariusrecords.org/cat/newest.html(BOOMKAT:) "Another heart-stopping debut brought to you by the increasingly inspired Digitalis imprint, Concern is the recording project of Gordon Ashworth who in a previous incarnation (as Oscillating Innards) delivered an altogether more brutal take on experimental music before planting his feet firmly in the world of shimmering, layered drones. The first thing to hit you about this amazing album is the custom-designed silkscreened gatefold sleeve it comes in, one of those packages that has you flipping it inside out in wonder, a fitting precursor to the music itself which is just nothing short of immense. Despite the heavily processed sound of this material, the three long tracks here (clocking in at a total of 30 minutes) were constructed almost entirely out of acoustic instrumentation, with the opening piece gradually building from a frayed field recording into a colossal hum of dense, layered drone that just seems to expand and develop without any perceptible change. It's inspiring, deceptively visceral stuff. Next up - 'Young Birth' begins along a similar trajectory but soon curls up into into an incubated assembly of disentangled instruments, before the epic closing "Heratsink" proceeds to completely obliterate the vast majority of what passes for contemporary Drone with a colossal shimmer that sounds like Tim Hecker reconfiguring classic Raga structures into something almost unspeakably beautiful. Amazing music, strictly strictly limited styles so act fast!"
http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=186744Lastly, if you live in Portland Oregon, I'll be performing a Concern set at Abyssal Behemoth tomorrow night (august 6th) with Grasslung (baltimore), Pulse Emitter, Pete Swanson and Josh Hydeman. 9 pm sharp (i hope), $3-5 for the touring bands, all ages. 5245 NE 15th ave (in the basement, enter through the back), between Killingsworth + Alberta.
enjoy the summer.
love,
gordon