pete swanson “high time b/w trees” seven inch single record

• high time
  
  
• trees

emerald cocoon press release...

pete swanson alone together #5 - high time / trees 7" [ec007] pete swanson's love for the new zealand underground is no secret (rumour has it that he engineered the entire yellow swans new zealand tour of 2005 just so he could procure a copy of the pin group 'goes to town' 12"), so we were pleasantly unsurprised when pete turned in two re-imaginings of classic nz underground tracks as his contribution to the alone together series. what surprised us greatly though was the form that they took: sparkling acoustic guitar, audible vocals, audible room tone – this was a pete swanson we'd never heard before. although his signature degradation systems are still in place (both sides end with a blown-out acoustic guitar emulating dirty-needled distortion), acoustic strings, four walls and a voice dominate, dislocated just enough to give you the sense that the world ends at your bedroom walls. this is a sound that shouldn't be unfamiliar to anyone previously baptised by 4-track channelled lathe transmissions from the bottom of the world. the dusty gems re-interpreted here are 'high time' by seminal christchurch kvltists dadamah (originally released as a 7" on the genius majora label circa '91) and 'trees' from gate's recent downer-techno masterpiece 'a republic of sadness', both are redolent of the darkest, coldest dunedin winter as imagined from half a world away. edition of 300.

yek koo “oh woman b/w flame creation” seven inch single record

• oh woman
  
  
• flame creation

emerald cocoon press release...

yek koo alone together #3 - oh woman / flame creation 7" [ec005] helga fassonaki (of metal rouge) returns as yek koo with her first new release since last years 'i saw myself' on stunned records. gone are the horizontal string-sprawl epics of past, replaced by a new density and compositional focus. dictaphone guitar-swirl and declamatory vocal preaching atop loping nod-out rhythm samples, you could almost say yek koo has gone pop …. until the b-side hits: a sheet of live industrial slamming recorded at la's now defunct spiritual hub, the echo curio, that sounds like a realtime channelling of kali. as hard to pin down as ever, the closest point of comparison would be the morley / russell split 7" lathe on corpus hermeticum left to percolate in the merciless californian sun and even that sounds nothing like it. confusing, enticing, nuanced and brutal. part 3 of the 'alone together' series. mastered by pete swanson. edition of 300.

ashley paul “hidden face b/w leave mine” seven inch single record

• hidden face
  
  
• leave mine

emerald cocoon press release...

ashley paul alone together #2 - hidden face / leave mine 7" [ec004] ashley paul's music is the intersection of so many different facets of late 20th century art music that sometimes i'm surprised that the vinyl can still spin under the weight of all the ideas contained within. modern composition, euro free clatter and textural psychedelia converge as stilted song forms on the verge of careening off the very face of form on thin lines of carefully controlled reed-skree. amazing that a music so loaded with ideas could feel so hand crafted and warm. guitar, vocals, crotales and saxophone stitched together and moving in a constant slow peristalsis, never quite coalescing, never quite drifting apart. equal parts alien unease and folkish charm, these slowly tangled tones drift prismatic and high in the late afternoon light. ashley is also one half of aster (with artist of equal genius and partner in life/crime eli keszler) and paul & maurey (with sakiko mori). part 2 of the 'alone together' series. mastered by pete swanson. edition of 300.

christina carter “obelisk b/w tholos” seven inch single record

• obelisk
  
  
• tholos

emerald cocoon press release...

christina carter alone together #1 - obelisk / tholos 7" [ec003] a new 7" by christina carter which serves as the opening ceremony for our new 7" series of solo performances 'alone together'. a lone voice, the tangled bells, the caw of a crow, a plane passing overhead … a fortuitous overlapping of sound moments, trapped in amber by christina for us to bear witness. much like her early cdr’s 'hand & mind' or 'human as guitar', 'obelisk/tholos' is an act of white witchcraft, a healing spell that defines time with the merest of tools: bells, voice, a microphone … mastered by pete swanson, ed. 300