Port St. Willow Syncope

CAT No. FLAU55
Release Date: January 27th 2016
Format: CD/Digital (LP from People Teeth)

2012年にセルフ・リリースされたデビュー作「Holiday」がじわじわと注目を集め、Brian Enoにも絶賛されたNYブルックリンのマルチ・インストゥルメンタリストNicholas PrincipeによるプロジェクトPort St. Willowがflauよりセカンドアルバムをリリース。
「アイデアが生まれた瞬間」をテーマに、インプロヴィゼーションに重きを置いた作曲とレコーディングによってサウンド・エンジニアのVictor Nashと共に練り上げられた楽曲は、ポスト・プロダクションを排することで、楽曲が今まさに生まれた時のエネルギーに満ち溢れています。RhyeやJeff Buckleyとも比較されるPrincipeの美しいファルセットに導かれながら聴き入る一曲一曲は、まるで光と波の背景に浮かび上がる映像を見ているような感覚。Tim HeckerやSusumu Yokotaからの影響を公言するそのサウンドは幻想的で豊かなアイデアに満ちあふれ、スロウコアの寂寞感から高揚する光の煌めきさえも感じることができるでしょう。アルバムにはThe AntlersのPeter Silberman、Will Epstein (Nicholas Jaar、High Water)やRVNG Intl.からリリースするBing & Ruthの中心メンバーDavid Mooreがゲスト参加し、緻密に練り上げた密室感のある耽美的な音のパレットに更なる深化を付け加えています。
変化が起きた直後の愛と、その後生まれ変わるための変化を表現し、前作から大きな飛躍を遂げたニューアルバム。 CDには現在廃盤となっている貴重なデビューEP「EVEN//WASTELAND」を追加収録。アートワークを世界的なムスリム・デザイナーとして知られるHana Tajimaが担当しています。

I am inside your calling voice. I hear it so close that it is nothing but light.

Port St. Willow’s Holiday was an expansive yet personal record that was quietly self-released in early 2012, creeping its way into the ears and hearts of listeners. One of these people was ambient mastermind Brian Eno, who waxed poetic about the band in an interview with Mother Jones
“I just heard a record last month by Port St. Willow… which I became completely entranced by,” he said. “I just thought how amazing that somebody could take the same few chords, pretty much the same sorts of sounds – it’s quite hard to tell what is original about it, but I just know I’ve never heard it before. It’s such a fabulous record.”

Port St. Willow’s sophomore effort, Syncope, uses the same focus on rhythm, texture, and voice to revisit a world that Holiday built. Nicholas Principe, Port St. Willow’s principle songwriter, returns to this world with an expanded palette of colors and language to explore the things that unwind us and bring us back to ourselves.
Written and recorded with a focus on improvisation, Principe sought to capture the moments just after an idea is found. Working closely with engineer Victor Nash, the energy of these performances makes Syncope feel alive and breathing. Arranged after the fact as a continuous piece, the listener is placed in a bed of noise and rhythm that intersect to create new moments across each listen. Guided by Principe’s clear falsetto, each piece becomes an image described, coming into focus against a backdrop of sirens and metal, waves and light.
In the spirit of the original effort, contributors Will Epstein (Nicolas Jaar, High Water), Peter Silberman (The Antlers), and David Moore (Bing & Ruth) all deliver performances captured and unedited.

This is visual music with an emotive core. An expression of love in response to sudden change, and the patient steps forward of a rebirth.

In the language of: Talk Talk, Susumu Yokota, Brian Eno, Tim Hecker

KEEP READING

Track List

01 Ume 02 Ordinary Pleasure

03 An Ocean We Both Know

04 Atlas

05 Motion

06 Three Halves Whole

07 Orbit Back, My Garden Home

08 Syncope

09 Opal

10 Pulse

11 Even

12 Tunnels

13 Wasteland

Press Quotes

先月Port St. Willowのレコードを聴いて、完全に虜だよ…音楽は幾つかのシンプルなコードで成り立ってるだけなのに、新鮮なんだ。最高のアルバムだよ –
Brian Eno

the depth and fluidity of composition is remarkable (imagine if Julia Holter arranged for Rhye) and winds up somewhere unique, and spellbinding... Pitchfork

emotional, atmospheric…It is as if you are taken to a cloudy, cold day in a beautiful, but desolate setting overlooking a calm lake – My Old Kentucky Blog

Port St. Willow is like a migration of monarch butterflies, flooding the forest with noise and color at just the right time of year – Tiny Mix Tapes

a welcome return to the brass and percussion-laced dreamscapes that made our first encounter so magical – 
Indie Shuffle

Syncope proves that Principe is clearly capable of creating music that caresses the listener…as the brainchild of Talk Talk-era Mark Hollis and the most recent works of Radiohead – Independent Musi News

a gorgeous, slowcore meditation that puts Principe’shis shivery falsetto front and center – Brooklyn Magazine

Keep an ear out for the impeccably three-dimensional sounds around you, like the jingling of keys. – Cool Hunting

Port St Willow is resurrecting the lost art of the fade-in…Nothing in this music is in any discernible hurry. Syncope holds no sharp edges, no abrupt outlines…it might carry on for five minutes or forever, fading in and out and in again, embedding itself in your mind – Paste Magazine

the band have focused on intimate instrumentation, found sounds and the lead singer’s soft falsetto. Unsurprisingly Brian Eno is a big fan – Norman Records

l’album révèle néanmoins, indubitablement, une personnalité tout à fait particulière et une qualité d’écriture incontestable – 
EtherREAL

水彩画のようにじわっと広がり、徐々に変化していく幻想的なアンビエント…スロウコア風の暗めなトラックに中世的なファルセット際立つ一枚 – Mikiki

実験的な側面もある緻密なプロダクションのサウンドと、バラード調の歌い上げの妖艶なうたで、ディープかつムーディーで美しい世界 – Linus Records

ベッドルームのシガーロス…ボン・イヴェール、パフューム・ジーニアス、ライ、アントニー&ザ・ジョンソンズ好きも必聴 – Tower Records

Port St. Willow Syncope

CAT No. FLAU55
Release Date: January 27th 2016
Format: CD/Digital (LP from People Teeth)

Track List

01 Ume 02 Ordinary Pleasure

03 An Ocean We Both Know

04 Atlas

05 Motion

06 Three Halves Whole

07 Orbit Back, My Garden Home

08 Syncope

09 Opal

10 Pulse

11 Even

12 Tunnels

13 Wasteland

2012年にセルフ・リリースされたデビュー作「Holiday」がじわじわと注目を集め、Brian Enoにも絶賛されたNYブルックリンのマルチ・インストゥルメンタリストNicholas PrincipeによるプロジェクトPort St. Willowがflauよりセカンドアルバムをリリース。
「アイデアが生まれた瞬間」をテーマに、インプロヴィゼーションに重きを置いた作曲とレコーディングによってサウンド・エンジニアのVictor Nashと共に練り上げられた楽曲は、ポスト・プロダクションを排することで、楽曲が今まさに生まれた時のエネルギーに満ち溢れています。RhyeやJeff Buckleyとも比較されるPrincipeの美しいファルセットに導かれながら聴き入る一曲一曲は、まるで光と波の背景に浮かび上がる映像を見ているような感覚。Tim HeckerやSusumu Yokotaからの影響を公言するそのサウンドは幻想的で豊かなアイデアに満ちあふれ、スロウコアの寂寞感から高揚する光の煌めきさえも感じることができるでしょう。アルバムにはThe AntlersのPeter Silberman、Will Epstein (Nicholas Jaar、High Water)やRVNG Intl.からリリースするBing & Ruthの中心メンバーDavid Mooreがゲスト参加し、緻密に練り上げた密室感のある耽美的な音のパレットに更なる深化を付け加えています。
変化が起きた直後の愛と、その後生まれ変わるための変化を表現し、前作から大きな飛躍を遂げたニューアルバム。 CDには現在廃盤となっている貴重なデビューEP「EVEN//WASTELAND」を追加収録。アートワークを世界的なムスリム・デザイナーとして知られるHana Tajimaが担当しています。

I am inside your calling voice. I hear it so close that it is nothing but light.

Port St. Willow’s Holiday was an expansive yet personal record that was quietly self-released in early 2012, creeping its way into the ears and hearts of listeners. One of these people was ambient mastermind Brian Eno, who waxed poetic about the band in an interview with Mother Jones
“I just heard a record last month by Port St. Willow… which I became completely entranced by,” he said. “I just thought how amazing that somebody could take the same few chords, pretty much the same sorts of sounds – it’s quite hard to tell what is original about it, but I just know I’ve never heard it before. It’s such a fabulous record.”

Port St. Willow’s sophomore effort, Syncope, uses the same focus on rhythm, texture, and voice to revisit a world that Holiday built. Nicholas Principe, Port St. Willow’s principle songwriter, returns to this world with an expanded palette of colors and language to explore the things that unwind us and bring us back to ourselves.
Written and recorded with a focus on improvisation, Principe sought to capture the moments just after an idea is found. Working closely with engineer Victor Nash, the energy of these performances makes Syncope feel alive and breathing. Arranged after the fact as a continuous piece, the listener is placed in a bed of noise and rhythm that intersect to create new moments across each listen. Guided by Principe’s clear falsetto, each piece becomes an image described, coming into focus against a backdrop of sirens and metal, waves and light.
In the spirit of the original effort, contributors Will Epstein (Nicolas Jaar, High Water), Peter Silberman (The Antlers), and David Moore (Bing & Ruth) all deliver performances captured and unedited.

This is visual music with an emotive core. An expression of love in response to sudden change, and the patient steps forward of a rebirth.

In the language of: Talk Talk, Susumu Yokota, Brian Eno, Tim Hecker

KEEP READING