Sean McCann is all about public services. After releasing so many amazing and varied limited tapes and CD-Rs in the last few years that Masami Akita begged him to halt production in a 2009 conference call with Ashtray Navigations, the American Tapes label, and Will Oldham, McCann helpfully released The Capital (TMT Review) as a sort of primer on what he does, which is inch the ghosts in your creaky house ever-closer to Heaven by simulating a series of tectonic shifts in the lower mantle of the Spectral-Earth. The album put everything into perspective for us over-saturated music lovers, and we thanked him for it by placing The Capital at #19 on our 2011 year-end list. Now we’re acting like we’ve been meditating to the Fountains 2xCD-R all along and are clamoring for more “overwhelmingly melodic” music, which we ain’t finding at The Hype Machine. Enter the McCann-curated Recital label, who’ve just released their first batch of 16th-/22nd-century bangers!
First up is the collaborative Vanity Fair LP from McCann and Ekhein label head Matthew Sullivan, which you can read all about and watch a promo video for at the Chocolate Grinder. Here’s a small but stunning sample from it:
Second and third (the best/the one with the polka dot dress, respectively) are Radiant Husk’s Micromegas and Troy Schafer’s Evening Song Awaken, both released in deluxe CD-R editions with hand-stamped inserts and jewel cases and evocative odors. Micromegas is a collection of “flustered and saturated drone” by Bezoar Formations’ Matthew Erickson that uses saxophone, organ, gong, and tapes as its musical palette. In order to qualify for the Recital label, Radiant Husk (pictured above) had to convincingly claim that the album was based on Voltaire’s short story of the same name from 1752 — and it worked! Troy Schafer is an extremely proficient violinist, and on Evening Song Awaken he lays down the case for “extreme violin proficiency” with seven tracks of gorgeous unaccompanied classical violin. Listen to a track from each below:
All three releases are now available for purchase direct from the label (note: the CD-Rs are only $6!), and are going fast, understandably. Next up for the label will be a brand-new album from Scott Foust’s Idea Fire Company called Rags to Riches; check back for more on that soon. Unless I die in a fire!
• Recital Program/Sean McCann: http://www.recitalprogram.com
• Matthew Sullivan: http://www.ekhein.com
• Radiant Husk: http://www.bezoarformations.com
• Troy Schafer: http://troyallenschafer.bandcamp.com
More about: Sean McCann
