mimaroglu music sales ☞ artists ☞ town and country

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previous artist: towering breaker		there are 6 titles featuring town and country in stock. they are listed below.		next artist: chris townend

$17.43

back in stock as of
november 28th, 2008

first in stock on
october 15th, 2007

threads:
free-improvisation
modern-composition
modern-psych

bottrop-boy (germany) #b-boy 024 cd

pillow “plays brötzmann” compact disc

images 01 (5:32)
images 02 (6:35)
images 03 (3:42)
images 04 (5:42)
images 05 (2:37)
images 06 (4:22)
images 07 (6:29)
images 08 (4:06)
images 09 (3:33)
images 10 (0:59)
images 11 (8:29)

bottrop-boy press release...

pillow
plays brötzmann
cd / b-boy 024

how to improvise on an existing work of improvisation? american outfit pillow took the plunge by carefully placing european free jazz legend peter brötzmann’s group improvisation piece images on the rack. don’t expect any tortured notes or twisted chords, though, as pillow respectfully and patiently square up to brötzmann’s music. written especially for his tentet and released on okkadisk, images is one of brötzmann’s most meditative collective works of improvisation. tentet member and cellist fred lonberg holm took up the challenge and together with his pillow quartet breathed new live into the composition, and a completely new piece of music is born.

the reflective mood of brötzmann’s original is admiringly kept intact in pillow’s interpretation, considering that it’s constructed in eleven parts. apart from lonberg holm, pillow is: liz payne (bass, viola and percussion), michael colligan (tubes and dry ice) and ben vida (trumpet and guitar) from minimalist post-rock band town and country. the quartet strives for tight harmony in the tradition of classic sixties improv groups like amm and mev. the totality of sound is paramount and individual proclivities and the virtuoso solo performances are wisely avoided.

plays brötzmann reveals a quartet in full flow; predominantly calm, trance-inducing improvisations will occasionally veer off at unexpected angles, but they rarely loosen their grip on the listener. in this twilight world, the music levitates between modern classical, free improv and melancholic post-rock. impressively, these musicians have managed to dose the ingredients taken from the storerooms of their respective musical backgrounds for the preparation of images to perfection. among such ingredients are ominous strings, wistful guitar riffs, gamelan-like sequences and crashing cymbals. the listener is a traveller in a fascinating soundscape where unexpected musical horizons suddenly appear within reach.

$12.96

back in stock as of
may 23rd, 2008

first in stock on
september 7th, 2007

threads:
minimalism-drones
modern-psych
modern-composition

thrill jockey (usa) #thrill 165 cd

town and country “up above” compact disc

sun trolley (7:42)
fields and parks of easy access (1:42)
phoney fuckin’ mountain (4:27)
bee cee (1:42)
cloud seeding (2:59)
blue lotus feet (2:58)
king of portugal (5:31)
belle isle (2:44)
almost at white glass and sun (3:52)
up above (9:43)

thrill jockey press release...

up above
by town and country
thrill jockey
thrill 165 • 2006

the inspiration and ingredients for up above came from two recent tours. town and country toured in japan, at the end of ‘03, where jim dorling first performed a solo piece with some throat singing. on the same tour in kyoto jim bought a shakuhachi (japanese bamboo flute) and josh bought a khaen (chinese bamboo mouth organ).

the following spring town and country toured with tony conrad. “this tour was a great honor for us as he has been a huge influence since our first album in 1997. an extended improvisation we did with tony’s violin in the lead was the germ for the music on this record. ben had already started playing the violin at that time and i was doing the overtone singing with the harmonium (josh on bass, liz on viola).” says dorling. the experience deepened the group’s long-standing fascination with the big drone. during the tour tony gave a lecture at bard in which he discussed (among many other things) the work of milton erickson, the foremost hypnotist of the 20th century. some psychiatrists preferred to read erickson’s lectures rather than attend them as his manner of speaking tended to make them woozy.

up above may tend to make you woozy. it’s a sleepy, trance-inducing affair, an effort to engross the black bee of our minds on the blue lotus feet of our divine mother. this is a first for cover tunes and a first for singing. “blue lotus feet” is a yoga tune and apparently there is a will oldham version of this tune floating around as well. “king of portugal” is based on cancao dos reis from an old folkways 10 inch of portuguese christmas carols. only the first line was printed in the liner notes so to learn the words jim dorling listened to the song over and over again one day while home sick from work until the other words sounded like something to him. he wrote that something down and sang it.

it was recorded in the hot summer of 2005, almost entirely in jim’s living room 2 track to portable hard drive recorder. home recording and the lack of soundproofing of his chicago apartment added some unexpected treats. on “sun trolley” there’s a truck that sounds like the beginning of a bass line and a chair being scraped across the floor upstairs. “blue lotus feet” and “fields and parks of easy access” were recorded by jeremy lemos at semaphor. “king of portugal” was recorded at sparrow sound by todd carter. up above refers to the paul bowles novel up above the world. psych folk drone may be the flavor of the month but town and country have been doing this for 8 years.

james dorling vocals, tambura, autoharp, harmonium, organ pipe, hmong harp, shakuhachi
joshua abrams drarp, slit drum, karkabas, celeste, khaen, guimbri, string bass, glockenspiel, vocals
benjamin vida guitar, violin, mbira, slit drum, karkabas, hand chimes, vocals, accordion, mandolin
liz payne viola, guitar, percussion, kalimba, hand chimes

$12.96

back in stock as of
may 23rd, 2008

first in stock on
september 7th, 2007

threads:
minimalism-drones
modern-psych
modern-composition

thrill jockey (usa) #thrill 128 cd

town and country “5” compact disc

sleeping in the midday sun (10:11)
aubergine (4:59)
nonstop dancer (9:19)
lifestyled (4:27)
old fashioned (6:03)

thrill jockey press release...

5
by town and country
thrill jockeythrill 128 • 2003

the fifth record by chicago's town and country is the aptly titled 5, and while it goes so far as to include a homage to the city's more famous self-titled band's artwork the comparisons stop there. like many of the innovators who have carved out sub-genre's in music over the last few years (idm and post-rock quickly spring to mind), town and country along with bands like threnody ensemble and the rachel's have carved out a niche based around classical and modern classical composition.

the members of town and country met through participation in a series of weekly improv sessions that included like minded musicians jim o'rourke, kevin drumm and ken vandermark to name a few. the band's debut was released on the experimental label, boxmedia and the band began to play out at both conventional rock clubs, and in galleries and theaters which lent themselves to acoustic and classical music. subsequently the band has released two more full lengths plus an ep and toured the states and europe, alternating between the modern composition and indie-rock worlds, all the while broadening their audience.

their newest record, 5, continues this ongoing evolution and further extends the language they have been working on for the last six years. all of the pieces on 5 were composed prior to recording, though some entered the studio in a more complete form than others. all selections are entirely acoustic, and experimentation continues to be employed in most town and country compositions.

there are two types of songs on 5. the first being the concise simple chamber pieces ("aubergene", "old fashioned"), and the second being more sprawling trance pieces ("sleeping in the midday sun", "shirtless"). the recording process is simply four people in a room with acoustic instruments - no studio tricks, gimmicks, computers or samples in fact no amplification at all. the band pride themselves in the ideas put forth creating music of this nature.

as music continues to be categorized and fracture into genre's, town and country continue at their own pace hoping to put a face on "post-classical-chamber-rock" or whatever the ny times decides to call it.

$12.96

back in stock as of
may 23rd, 2008

first in stock on
september 7th, 2007

threads:
minimalism-drones
modern-psych
modern-composition

thrill jockey (usa) #thrill 114 cd

town and country “c’mon” compact disc

going to kamakura (8:16)
i'm appealing (7:33)
garden (3:50)
the bells (8:34)
i am so very cold (3:15)
palms (4:26)
bookmobile (8:02)

thrill jockey press release...

c'mon
by town and country
thrill jockey
thrill 114 • 2002

c'mon is town and country's 2nd full length for thrill jockey, and 3rd album overall. this album picks up where 2000's it all has to do with it left off finding the group fine-tuning and expanding the timbre of their all-acoustic/no electronic line up.

for c'mon their string-bass/acoustic guitar core is augmented by jim dorling's move from harmonium to bass clarinet which he often plays in tandem with ben vida's cornet. in addition liz payne's adept handling of the hand chimes gives the record an other-worldly feel in conjunction with josh abrams' work on the celeste.

compositionally, town and country have shifted as well. their songs were often noted for their length as much as their beauty, but for c'mon the quartet has constructed 7 songs in 40 minutes time. the various members have been involved in many other projects recently. to name just a few; liz payne and ben vida have recorded and performed in the improvised group pillow, josh abrams has performed with many on chicago's improvised music scene including fred anderson as well as playing on bobby conn's 2001 album the golden age and touring with papa m. c'mon is the result of an entire year's labor of love. the album also begins to reveal some heretofore unmentioned influences as well: the work of arthur russell, jimmy giuffre, and eno's recordings in the 1970's for the obscure label mesh with town and country's already original and minimally lush sound.

$12.24

back in stock as of
may 23rd, 2008

first in stock on
september 7th, 2007

threads:
minimalism-drones
modern-psych
modern-composition

thrill jockey (usa) #thrill 088 cd

town and country “it all has to do with it.” compact disc

hindenburg (10:24)
hat versus hood (8:53)
fine italian hand (7:22)
that old feeling (15:10)

thrill jockey press release...

it all has to do with it
by town and country
thrill jockey
thrill 088 • 2000

it all has to do with it., the third release from town and country and their second on thrill jockey, follows last spring's decoration day ep. this full-length is the group's most accessible and succinct statement to date. with two string basses, acoustic guitar, and portable acoustic keyboards (harmonium, celeste, accordian) as its basic instrumentation, town and country don't just strip down to the drum/bass/guitar logic of rock, they totally sidestep it.

in the studio the standard rock method of recording basic rhythm tracks followed by adding overdubs does not work as well for a band without a rhythm section. accordingly, the group took a year to compose and arrange the songs on this record and three days to record and mix. the finger-picked-guitar-with-drones approach of the first cd has evolved into a more dynamic, group-composed ensemble playing where no particular instrument carries the water and parts are through composed rather than looped. the first three cuts stand as a honing of the craft of the first two cd's, but in the final 15 minute piece that old feeling, layers of interlocking grooves reveal a whole new direction that could almost be described as acoustic techno. influences are morton feldman, john fahey, don cherry, franco batiato, gavin bryars and sonny sharrock.

town and country features liz payne on contrabass, celeste, piano, acoustic guitar, and bells, josh abrams on contrabass, celeste, mbira, snare drum, and vibes, jim dorling on harmonium, celeste and bells, and ben vida on guitar, accordian, trumpet, and bells and everyone on bowed bowls. the four met on chicago's wicker park improvised music scene and began playing as a group in january 1997.

josh abrams has been playing professionally in chicago since 1994. he is a member of the sam prekop band and the david boykin outet, has recorded with bobby conn, david grubbs, loren mazzacane connors, the spinanes, tortoise and the roots. he was a member of rob mazurek's chicago underground orchestra and led a trio with veteran chicago musicians robert barry and ron dewar.

liz payne and ben vida have made two records and toured extensively as half of the improvised group pillow with fred lonberg-holm and mike colligan. ben vida recently released his debut solo record mpls. on boxmedia. he has performed a composition by werner dafeldecker with sainkho namtchylak, christof kurzmann and members of polwechsel and and he and his brother sing in the band, central falls. liz plays in a trio with ken vandermark.

jim dorling helped form the free improvisational group etaoin shrdlu in 1989. members of town and country have improvised with kevin drumm, axel dorner, jim o'rourke, fred anderson, mats gustafsson, milo fine, donald garret, guillermo gregorio and many others.

$7.21

back in stock as of
may 23rd, 2008

first in stock on
september 7th, 2007

threads:
minimalism-drones
modern-psych
modern-composition

thrill jockey (usa) #thrill 083 cd

town and country “decoration day” compact disc

give your baby a standing ovation
spicer
off season

thrill jockey press release...

decoration day
by town and country
thrill jockey
thrill 083 • 2000

the decoration day ep is town and country's second release and their first on thrill jockey. it expands their all-acoustic instrumentation from the guitar, harmonium and 2 string basses of the first release to josh abrams on contrabass, piano and kalimba, liz payne on piano, snare drum and guitar, jim dorling on harmonium and celeste and ben vida on guitar and accordian. (the ep was recorded while liz was recovering from a woodshop hand injury that prevented her from playing the contrabass, she's playing it again at the time of this writing) the four met on the wicker park improvised music scene and began playing as a group in january 1997.

on decoration day, town and country has coaxed their back-porch minimalism out into the café. the layered, unhurried drones developed on the first release now function to resolve through-composed pointillist melodies. inspired by the music of morton feldman and franco batiato, town and country continues to present music in which the slightest changes are strongly felt.

previous artist:
towering breaker

...and that's everything in stock featuring town and country.
(why not take a look at the previous and next artists?)

next artist:
chris townend

.home.

.artists.

.labels.

.new.

.restocks.

.best.

.faq.

.soon.

... this page was last updated on thursday, may 24th, 2012 @ 6:07 pm