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 blir 		there are 4 titles featuring the blithe sons in stock.
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 blitter 
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$13.65

new to stock as of
october 14th, 2008

threads:
jewelled-antler
modern-psych
folk
field-recordings
minimalism-drones

family vineyard (usa) #fv 62 lp

the blithe sons “the great orthochromatic wheel” long playing record

  • in the shade of the earth
  • try to find a memory in a dark room
  • circling

  • the genesis of the great orthochromatic wheel
  • the wheel nearly at rest
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "the wheel nearly at rest"
october 2008 release ; vinyl outing from the jewelled antler duo of loren chasse & glenn donaldson ...

this one perfectly encapsulates everything that i’ve grown to love re: their music ; in the more narrative sections loren’s surging hurdy gurdy hum envelops glenn’s sparse guitar & voice, but for the most part the field-recording laced reed-drones are at front-center ; at first off-puttingly dissonant but always coalescing into a gorgeous chord-cloud ...

reasonably priced edition from family vineyard ; highly recommended !!!
family vineyard press release...

the blithe sons
the great orthochromatic wheel

catalog: fv62
release: october 21, 2008
format: lp

the great orthochromatic wheel is the blithe sons first full-length release since 2004. in the years since the california duo of loren chasse and glenn donaldson may have traversed poppy fields and swam to aqua cities though mostly they’ve remained active with their jewelled antler offshoots: ov, of, and child readers (chasse) or skygreen leopards and flying canyon (donaldson) and both in thuja.

these five songs combine nature's melodic pull and minimalist songs forms summoned by a miniature orchestra of eclectic instruments. each lp side flaunts a different depth of the sons, one recorded outdoors and the other inside. the indoor set consists of slow-motion ballads built on hymn-like organ, nylon string guitar, analog drum machine & stark percussion. the outdoor side offers a web of exotic wind-instruments & battery-powered electronics reverberating in a cavernous hall cut in the side of a sea-cliff.

the blithe sons have released five other full-length albums since 2001 for family vineyard, chocolate monk and jewelled antler. in 2007 the sons curated the sixth volume of music fellowship’s triptych series bringing together pekko kappi and claypipe for a three-way split cd. the great orthochromatic wheel is a one-time, 500 edition lp pressing.

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$13.26

back in stock as of
october 14th, 2008

first in stock on
december 2nd, 2004

threads:
jewelled-antler
minimalism-drones
modern-psych

family vineyard (usa) #fv 29 cd

the blithe sons “arm of the starfish” compact disc

  • sparkling diatoms
  • sun anenome
  • animals of the seashore
  • foam
  • sea-glass
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "sun anenome"
second release by the blithe sons on family vineyard (i’m suspecting the other 3 the writeup below refers to are cdr-only editions that never real-ly existed). as wasted and primordial as it’s predecessor(s)...
family vineyard press release...
the blithe sons
the arm of the starfish
fv29 cd

fifth full-length release from the outdoor wandering the blithe sons, the jewelled antler-related duo of loren chasse (of, thuja) and glenn donaldson (skygreen leopards, thuja). performed mostly in coastal california environs on acoustic and battery-powered instruments, the sound of waves, wind, tide pools, seabirds and shifting sand plays an active role in these minimalist folk atmospheres. incorporating 12-string cuatro, acoustic guitar, dulcimer, banjo, harmonium, percussion, toy amplifiers, wood flutes, thai mouthorgan, violin-uke, casio and donaldson's mysterious vocal utterances, arm evokes haunted shorelines, windswept cliffs and vast undersea caverns.

released march 15, 2004

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$12.48

back in stock as of
october 14th, 2008

first in stock on
december 2nd, 2004

threads:
jewelled-antler
modern-psych
minimalism-drones
folk

family vineyard (usa) #fv 21 cd

the blithe sons “we walk the young earth” compact disc

  • the book of names (10:45)
  • green patterns (7:25)
  • all children´s faces looking upwards (11:28)
  • the oldest living things (18:04)
  • we walk the young earth (5:16)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "the book of names"
it was suggested some time ago (around the time that i started mms actually) that i start carrying (essentially: collecting) the various releases by the various ensembles affiliated with the mythic jewelled antler collective (which, afaict, mainly consists of only 3 people: glenn donaldson, steven smith, and loren chasse). it wasn’t until i happened upon this disc that everything clicked...

this both promises and delivers everything that is holy and sacred at the crossroads of acoustic instrumentation / distant outsider songcraft and droning / site-specific sound research. it would be neither clever nor accurate to lump the blithe sons in with sea-level dwellers from the “new weird americana” set (to me, their music has more in common with the distant, clanging in an empty water-passageway tunnel of david jackman’s long-running organum project). clearly this is a band of troglodytes, as these transcriptions were apparently made by dipping a single large-diaphragm condenser microphone into the uppermost chamber of their lair, hovering 60 feet above the band, as in rehearsal-preparation of pending equinox.

i’m deriving a certain grand (and frankly, voyeuristic) pleasure out of these wayfaring oddities, which are unlike just about anything i’ve heard from the contemporary sound-spectrum.
family vineyard press release...
the blithe sons
we walk the young earth
fv21 cd

the third full-length release from the blithe sons, the duo of loren chasse (coelacanth, thuja, of) and glenn donaldson (skygreen leopards, the birdtree, thuja). compiled from performances that took place under a creek bridge in san gregorio and inside wwii-era bunkers on sea cliffs in the marin headlands, california. with acoustic guitar, harps, bells, harmonium, toy-amplifiers, gongs submerged in a creek, cymbals, battery-powered keyboards, vocals, banjo, birds, pipes, bell-blocks, drums, branches and the location itself as an instrument, these album weaves minimalist hymns with stark drones. the blithe sons conjure an imaginary wilderness through the sounds made within these mysterious locales, combining chasse's leanings towards tones and percussive textures with donaldson's folk-inflected melodies.

released april 22, 2003

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$10.92

new to stock as of
march 7th, 2008

threads:
modern-psych
jewelled-antler
minimalism-drones

ultra hard gel (usa) #gel 010 cd

of “the sun & earth together” compact disc

  • ignimbrites (3:20)
  • vog rings (8:17)
  • archangelic curtain (13:18)
  • the sun and earth together (26:10)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "vog rings"
sparse, transfixing work from loren chasse, performed on bowed exotic instruments & imbued with a certain warm sentimentality exclusive to jewelled-antler lineage projects (... sort of like looking at old family photos through frosted glass ... only with sound)

those of you that loved the recent steven r. smith “anchorite” - or even the skewed string-drones of neil campbell’s astral social club will want to check this out ...
ultra hard gel press release...
of the sun & earth together gel cd 10

clouds of drifting tones from loren chasse of blithe sons & thuja, made with cymbalon, autoharp, guitar, zither, sheng, & stones.

previous artist:
 blir 		...and that's everything in stock featuring the blithe sons.
(why not take a look at the previous and next artists?)		next artist:
 blitter 
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