Piano for Voice Repeating

by Troy Schafer

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1.	side a 07:57	lyrics	buy track
swallowed whole in nothingness in fragile arms eyes peer out, seeing void vision clouded, saying nothing in a blanket of stars in the permeating fog of all & I quietly turn towards the sea
2.	side b (mirror) 07:57		buy track

about

released as an edition of 1 cassette tape
_______________________________________

"Piano for Voice Repeating is a curious release both in its concept as well as the way its executed. In the digital version it included two tracks labelled as side a and side b (mirror), showing simply which tracks went on which side of tape version. The first curious thing about the release is the (mirrored) part of side b, indeed when I first saw the titles I was wondering what this stands for and with the two tracks being identical length I even had the strange thought it might be the “mirror” of the tape sides simply, obviously it isn’t however. What it means is that we have Piano for Voice Repeating playing in forwards direction in side a and played backwards (mirrored) in side b. In this digital version without side flips this did make for a curious listening experience in that the piece actually seems to be continuous over the two tracks even with the reverse of side b. Furthermore there are certain elements within the music which are also intentionally reversed making for a surreal experience of several parts of the music with side b (mirrored) even sounding like there are multiple additional added layers in the beginning of the track, though this might be more like an auditory illusion of the mind. Piano for Voice Repeating starts with a romantic swirling violin melody fading into delay which then crosses into a great mixture of quite contrasting elements, warm melancholic and ambient piano chords, manipulated vocal music recordings as well as crackling wooden mechanical sounds that also cut into the music for a bit. Field recordings of excited screaming children also feature, subtly fading into the background. A short poem is read out in a nice low pitched heartfelt voice adding a cinematic element to the already quite surreal mixture of elements of Ambient, Sound Collage and even some mild Noise bits in the rattling mechanical sounds. As we can hear the final line of the poem (And I quietly turn towards the sea) fade into deep reverb the music fades into its longest and most abstract part. Indeed up till now Troy Schafer’s already brought us an intriguing musical world of equally tranquil and rough melodic and organic sonics with some lo-fi edge to it (some parts of the piece even have some mild crackling in it, though technically the music isn’t peaking beyond -0.00 dB), but it gets even more surreal in the mysterious flow of the second part of the piece. In this second part starts what to me feels like the soundtrack of a deep sleep or lucid dreaming in which pleasant memories from the past all get blended into this filtered strangely subdued wind of remembered events, impressions as well as mangled misremembered bits you feel like knowing but not quite recognize. There’s some strange hidden sounds in here too, mostly human mumbled, even moan like short sounds that pop up. Eerie and meditative at the same time it does give off a feeling I’d normally get when listening to Dark Ambient music and the music does indeed have some of those elements too. As we move into side b (mirrored) you might notice the aforementioned seemingly added elements to the music at its start (or reversed end of side a), the way some layers were reversed to begin with does help to focus on different details once on side b (mirrored) as you can hear various violin and piano parts being played forward this time but also sonic details like crackles and mechanical rumble of the second part in a less abstracted context. Additionally in turns the now reversed first part of side a into what again feels a bit like a soundtrack to memories floating in the subconscious, especially the vocal music samples sound particularly ghostly this way. As the mysterious yet comfortable wave of melodic sound and abstraction moves towards the end of the track the forwards playing violin tones do add these great harmonic elements of closure until the reversed romantic violin outburst closes out the track and Piano for Voice Repeating in full. Piano for Voice Repeating is a wonderful short form release of music which is as experimental as it is melodic and mixes sonic elements normally found more in crackly styles of underground music like Noise and Industrial with an imaginative introspective Ambient composition which also dives into Dark Ambient territory and through the reversal effects on the second track and also integrated in the first makes for a unique and memorable listening experience. This is a great first listen at Troy Schafer’s solo work and independently also a great listen for listeners who are into avant-garde influenced Ambient music, Sound Collage and experimental music that mixes various forms of sound, including poetry into a uniquely personal whole. "

-Orlando Laman

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credits

released November 28, 2019

text by Steven Springer
www.instagram.com/blackbranches/?hl=en

read by Al Schafer
first violin - Laura Schafer

album art by August Schafer

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about

Troy Schafer Wisconsin

Electro-acoustic and neoclassical explorations from Northern Wisconsin. Founding member, primary instrumentalist, and vocalist for Kinit Her, Rain Drinkers and Wyrding - he lends his songwriting, engineering, production, and performance to a multitude of other projects including Pod Cast, Burial Hex, Spiral Joy Band, The World On Higher Downs, and Wormsblood. ... more

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