Jeremy Young: Amaro
[TLM027]
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Montreal-based electroacoustic composer Jeremy Young's new record is more like a suite of meaningful multi-disciplinary duets than an addition to his growing catalog of pure solo material. Adventurous and not over-produced; neither ambient nor noise; synthesized yet performed in real time as if it was an instrumental record...
..................................................................................................................................... Limited edition of 250 12" black vinyl LPs + Jeremy Young's exclusive* bonus EP "The Amaretto Ballroom Tapes" +/or Digital Album in 24-bit resolution including track (FLAC recommended). ..................................................................................................................................... Jeremy Young - oscillators, found 1/4" tape, captured radio & EMF signal, amplified surfaces & objects, composition by trial & error, late nights, weird thoughts, glasses of amaro on ice. Featuring: Tomonari Nishikawa - 16mm camera & projector (A1) Dolphin Midwives - harps (A3) Markus Floats - synths & voice (A4) Vito Ricci - bicycle wheel instrument & story (A5) Pauline Kim Harris - violins (B1) Johannes Bergmark - platform of amplified objects (B3) Deanna Radford - word events (B4) Ida Toninato - voice & tiny pine cones (B5) ..................................................................................................................................... Recorded and mixed in Montreal in 2019. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Cover artwork by China Marsot-Wood. Back cover illustration by Thaïla Khampo. ..................................................................................................................................... released on May 7, 2021. ℗ & © Thirsty Leaves Music ..................................................................................................................................... *The bonus EP is exclusive to our direct supporters! |
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REVIEWS:
"Jeremy Young is no stranger to collaboration. The artist first caught our attention as an integral part of the interdisciplinary collective Sontag Shogun, but in recent years the artist has branched out into solo work, producing such a wide variety of releases that one might be hard-pressed to identify his signature sound. He plays to his strengths on Amaro, creating a melange of tape, radio, oscillator, various objects and “weird thoughts;” but he doesn’t compose alone. A wonderful variety of friends, including some names familiar to our site and some new, drops by to create a gorgeously textured release. While recognizably the work of Young, Amaro is also a celebration of sonic conversation, extended to the visual realm through entrancing videos.
Tomonari Nishikawa contributes projector and 16mm film to the opening “Trafic,” making the connection that many claim but few carry out: Young’s music is literally filmic. Stutter and static, spool and clack conjure the tabula rasa of an opening image. What will Young scrawl upon this board?
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While the closing track of the LP proper links back around to the opener, the extended quartet of ballroom tracks offers a quiet recession, akin to that of a servant walking backward when leaving the presence of royalty. The collaborators return to their homes; the composer lingers to contemplate and incorporate the gifts they have left behind."
Richard Allen for A Closer Listen
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"The new album from electroacoustic composer Jeremy Young is draped in a sense of mystery, tones flickering gently, like an old home movie."
The Bandcamp New and Notable section
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"This latest release from Montreal-based composer/collaboration enthusiast Jeremy Young is quite an intriguing and adventurously kaleidoscopic suite of songs, as his revolving door of guest artists brought together quite an eclectic array of divergent aesthetics. While most of Amaro's participants were previously unfamiliar to me, all feel like unerringly solid choices, as these ten pieces feel like a single coherent vision that spread its tendrils outward into pleasantly unexpected terrain that beautifully blurs quite a few lines. While Amaro is arguably an ambient/drone album at its heart (Young's main tools are oscillators, tape loops, amplified surfaces, and EMF signals), it often feels like something considerably more compositionally and conceptually ambitious is happening, as there are nods to influences as diverse as Conlon Noncarrow, The Caretaker, and Scanner (as well as some thoughtful inspirations beyond music). As such, Amaro initially drew me in as an unusually good drone album, but it sneakily blindsided me several times once I gave it focused attention and sufficient volume.
[...] Obviously, I prefer some pieces to others, but it is extremely hard to imagine anyone interested in sound art making it all the through Amaro without being dazzled by at least two songs."
Anthony D'Amico for Brainwashed
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"[...] Most of the tracks are basically collaborations with different people representing the Montreal music scene and contributing with a rather wide spectrum of instruments and sound sources: from violin, harp, voices and synths to a 16 mm camera, a projector, a bicycle wheel instrument, a platform of amplified objects and tiny pine cones. In addition to this set-up, Young uses oscillators, tape loops, found tapes, EMF signals and amplified objects. All of these components are very carefully mixed and edited. At the same time, the tracks, mostly based on fragments recorded during live performances or in the studio, are not overly produced or too deconstructed. The music of the album varies greatly within itself: sometimes it is melodic and melancholic, partly rhythmical and abstract, somewhere on the fringe of ambient, noise, musique concrete, spoken word. The sound in general is not too rough, but rather delicate and even pleasant. The digital album is also supplied by various vinyl and art prints, which makes this release an excellent item for collectors and fans of good experimental music."
Alexei Borisov for Data.Wave Webzine
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"Electroacoustic composer Jeremy Young has developed a tactile approach over the course of his career in the creation of sound matter through the use of a system of sine and square wave oscillators, analog tape loops, all filtered and modulated with improvisation techniques. The development of this compositional method led the Canadian musician to the realization of his first album, Amaro. Released on 7 May 2021 by the Hellenic label Thirsty Leaves Music, Amaro captures moments of improvisation deconstructed into ten musical ideas that give shape to an organic record born from collaborations with Deanna Radford, Markus Floats, Ida Toninato, Tomonari Nishikawa, Vito Ricci, Pauline Kim Harris, Dolphin Midwives and Johannes Bergmark. [...] Despite its complexity, Amaro is an easy-to-grip record with a well-established formula that projects Jeremy Young towards a bright future."
Mario Ariano for Radioaktiv (in italian)
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"[...] Amaro is an example of oxygen-like electronic music. Young and co. twist and distort familiar, worldly sounds on Amaro to create otherworldly environments. The scratching of surfaces or the sounds of human voices are stretched and pulled, molded like clay. This technique creates a vast space of alien unpredictability that still feels smooth. Electronic composers are often called explorers, but that doesn’t feel right. Here, Young is the architect and the listeners are the explorers. You can discover new textures and sounds with every listen. The album is a labyrinth that I find myself wandering through, searching for some ancient and lonely creature that lives inside the maze, moving through the music.
I would isolate certain tracks and write about them, but it would be violent. Subjecting this record to too much language is wrong. You can zone out to Amaro or listen to it intently. You can read to it, and even sleep, walk, relax, meditate or write to it. The difficulty is in describing it."
Adam Iniss for Dominionated
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"[...] There is a wide variety of people featured as guests: synthesizers, harpists, violinists, experimental musicians who make full use of their own non-instruments, poets, filmmakers... but the duets here are more complicated; Jeremy basically spatially samples abstract sounds, such as inorganic outgoing sounds, minimal loops of awkward rhythms (or rather noises), and pre-fetal-like synth sounds that form orthodox melodies. It is studded with, paying attention to ASMR-like acoustics, and completely wraps the listener with a sound that is intelligent, sensual, and sometimes emotional. This strange sound is eroding the playing of the guests without exception. For example, the mysterious beauty of the "Frequenza Bianca" harp, the innocence and madness of the metallic slamming of "The Duchamp Bicycle Wheel Resonator", and the awe and ecstasy of the almost drone-noised violin of "Electricity Over Mirabel". A mysterious feeling of air mixed. Jeremy's processing entwined the sounds and intense personalities of those guests, incorporating them into a part of his own experimental world, transforming the whole picture into a multi-layered and bizarre amalgam. [...]"
Sikei-music (in japanese)
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"[...] Commencing with “Trafic”, we are entering an odd alien world or sonic environment. It sounds like Mr. Young is selectively using a singular fragment: camera or film projector sounds, scissors, soft feedback or static and then carefully manipulating those sounds. Each piece seems to capture a slightly different mood or vibe: somber, eerie, calm, quietly disorienting and quaintly hypnotic. We can tell that Mr. Young has spent much time on this album since every sound fits within a certain aura, vibe or environmental place. When I put this record on (7/29/21), there was some sunlight outside my window but as the album played, the sun went behind the clouds and it grew darker as if it were going to rain. This music fit both the outside and inside mood/vibe just right. [...]"
Bruce Lee Gallanter for Downtown Music Gallery
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"[...] Electronic oscillators, with sine, square or triangular signals, are a key part of Jeremy Young's sound gallery, and all the rest of the (sound) construction is completed around it, which has many elements of originality and at the same time convenience, in terms of its reception by the average listener. [...]
The variety and the unexpected elements appear in every track of Amaro (in Mythy, for example, spoken word and different levels of voices are mixed with oscillating signals, while in Tiny Pine Cones even singing is recorded, along with numerous sonic sabotages) ultimately providing the listening with its own distinct entity - and above all identity."
Phontas Troussas for Diskoryxeion/Vinylmine (in greek)
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