James Rushford
Lake From The Louvers
→ Bandcamp
Metadata
Printed artwork on reverse-board sleeve and innersleeve.
500 copies on black vinyl
Tracklist
1. U+25CF (05:10)
2. Loess (01:09)
3. Swanswing (05:11)
4. Hyaline Apples (01:55)
5. Seiche (01:01)
6. The Bise (08:14)
7. Sonde Rosettes (01:28)
8. Terrace (05:32)
9. A Boat Of Grass (00:44)
10. Esker (02:53)
11. Dents Du Midi (09:08)
Recording Credits
Composed and recorded 2018-2020 at La Becque Résidence d’artistes, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio and Julian Bower.
Additional synthesizer on ‘Terrace’ by Manuel Pessôa de Lima.
Mixed by Joe Talia at Holding Pattern, Berlin.
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu.
Design by Bartolomé Sanson.
Artwork by Valle Medina, Benjamin Reynolds (Pa.LaC.E),
Azumi and Kura. HD video, single channel, 2021.
About
Created primarily during a stay at the La Becque, an artist residency on the shores of Lake Geneva, Lake From The Louvers draws inspiration from the play of shadow and light on both the surface of the lake and the window through which Rushford viewed this lacustrine landscape. While the lake is itself at times directly audible in the form of field recordings, the image suggested by the record’s title is less directly represented than translated into sonic structures inspired, as Rushford explains, by ‘the passing of shadow through a fixed space’. The movement of light across these two flat surfaces, lake and window, finds its sonic equivalent in these eleven pieces, in which fragments and particles of sound – highly amplified crunches, synthesized squawks and pings, harp notes – ripple across the length of each track. Fixed sets of elements define each piece, often moulded into ephemeral ensembles in which individual voices consistently fade away and reappear.
Rushford’s performances on various keyboards provide the unstable, wavering foundations of many of these pieces, with microtonal tunings adding a woozy, seasick edge to his stately, often stunningly beautiful playing. Each side of the LP ends with an extended keyboard work: the first for groaning, sighing church organ, the second for a psychedelic cloud of detuned synthesizer tones in which harmonic fragments sink into their own melancholic recollection. Elsewhere the record makes use of elements as varied as microtonal harp, skittering drum machines and synthetic marimba, establishing a sound palette remarkable for its breadth, as well as its sparkling, glittering quality. Where many of Rushford’s solo projects have taken the form of long works with a sombre cast, Lake From The Louvers is strikingly bright and accessible, a series of sonic glimpses in which, like a late Monet, the shimmer of light undoes the distinction between image and reflection, foreground and background, surface and depth.
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu, cut at D+M. Printed artwork on inner and outer sleeves by Valle Medina and Benjamin Reynolds (Pa.LaC.E).
Design by Bartolomé Sanson. Released in collababoration with La Becque Editions.
James Rushford
Lake From The Louvers
→ Bandcamp
Metadata
Printed artwork on reverse-board sleeve and innersleeve.
500 copies on black vinyl
Tracklist
1. U+25CF (05:10)
2. Loess (01:09)
3. Swanswing (05:11)
4. Hyaline Apples (01:55)
5. Seiche (01:01)
6. The Bise (08:14)
7. Sonde Rosettes (01:28)
8. Terrace (05:32)
9. A Boat Of Grass (00:44)
10. Esker (02:53)
11. Dents Du Midi (09:08)
Recording Credits
Composed and recorded 2018-2020 at La Becque Résidence d’artistes, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio and Julian Bower.
Additional synthesizer on ‘Terrace’ by Manuel Pessôa de Lima.
Mixed by Joe Talia at Holding Pattern, Berlin.
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu.
Design by Bartolomé Sanson.
Artwork by Valle Medina, Benjamin Reynolds (Pa.LaC.E),
Azumi and Kura. HD video, single channel, 2021.
About
Created primarily during a stay at the La Becque, an artist residency on the shores of Lake Geneva, Lake From The Louvers draws inspiration from the play of shadow and light on both the surface of the lake and the window through which Rushford viewed this lacustrine landscape. While the lake is itself at times directly audible in the form of field recordings, the image suggested by the record’s title is less directly represented than translated into sonic structures inspired, as Rushford explains, by ‘the passing of shadow through a fixed space’. The movement of light across these two flat surfaces, lake and window, finds its sonic equivalent in these eleven pieces, in which fragments and particles of sound – highly amplified crunches, synthesized squawks and pings, harp notes – ripple across the length of each track. Fixed sets of elements define each piece, often moulded into ephemeral ensembles in which individual voices consistently fade away and reappear.
Rushford’s performances on various keyboards provide the unstable, wavering foundations of many of these pieces, with microtonal tunings adding a woozy, seasick edge to his stately, often stunningly beautiful playing. Each side of the LP ends with an extended keyboard work: the first for groaning, sighing church organ, the second for a psychedelic cloud of detuned synthesizer tones in which harmonic fragments sink into their own melancholic recollection. Elsewhere the record makes use of elements as varied as microtonal harp, skittering drum machines and synthetic marimba, establishing a sound palette remarkable for its breadth, as well as its sparkling, glittering quality. Where many of Rushford’s solo projects have taken the form of long works with a sombre cast, Lake From The Louvers is strikingly bright and accessible, a series of sonic glimpses in which, like a late Monet, the shimmer of light undoes the distinction between image and reflection, foreground and background, surface and depth.
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu, cut at D+M. Printed artwork on inner and outer sleeves by Valle Medina and Benjamin Reynolds (Pa.LaC.E).
Design by Bartolomé Sanson. Released in collababoration with La Becque Editions.
