PDP III

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Metadata

Printed artwork on matt-finished sleeve and innersleeve.
350 copies on black vinyl

Tracklist LP

A1. Permanent Display (03:48)
A2. Calendar of Days (05:39)
A3. Channel 3 (03:19)
A4. Walls of Kyoto (06:50)
B1. 49 Days (19:46)

Tracklist Digital

1. Permanent Display (03:48)
2. Calendar of Days (05:39)
3. Channel 3 (03:19)
4. Walls of Kyoto (06:50)
5. 49 Days (19:46)

Recording Credits

1. Permanent Display

Britton Powell: Electronics, Tascam Portastudio
Lucy Railton: Cello, Electronics
Brian Leeds: Electronics & Samples
Al Carlson: Engineering
Gabriel Schuman: Mixing & Mastering

2. Calendar of Days

Britton Powell: Electronics, Samples, Percussion (40” Sabian Gong, Cymbal)
Lucy Railton: Voice
Brian Leeds: Electronics & Samples
George Bennett: Percussion (40” Sabian Gong)
Al Carlson: Engineering
Gabriel Schuman: Mixing & Mastering

3. Channel 3

Britton Powell: Electronics & Samples
Lucy Railton: Electronics, Voice
Brian Leeds: Electronics & Samples
Al Carlson: Engineering
Gabriel Schuman: Mixing & Mastering

4. Walls of Kyoto

Britton Powell: Electronics & Samples
Lucy Railton: Electronics
Brian Leeds: Electronics & Samples
Amplified HVAC @ Gary’s Electric
Al Carlson: Engineering
Gabriel Schuman: Mixing & Mastering

5. 49 Days

Britton Powell: Electronics, Percussion (40” Sabian Gong, Cymbal), Upright Bass
Lucy Railton: Cello, Electronics
Brian Leeds: Electronics & Samples
Al Carlson: Engineering
Gabriel Schuman: Mixing & Mastering

—

Production & Arrangement: Britton Powell
Co-Production: Lucy Railton & Brian Leeds
Written by: Britton Powell, Lucy Railton, & Brian Leeds
Engineering: Al Carlson
Engineering Assistant: Robbie Aceto
Recorded @ Gary's Electric Studio - Brooklyn, New York: December 2018
Mixed & Mastered by Gabriel Schuman @ The Rut - Brooklyn, New York: 2019-20

Artwork by Ira Cohen,
“Alien Intelligence”, 1967, Mylar Chamber Series, Ira Cohen Archives, LLC

About

Pilled Up on a Couple of Doves is the debut full-length by PDP III, who fell into alignment in December of 2018 amid a handful of immersive and improvisatory recording sessions held at Gary’s Electric Studio in Brooklyn, New York. The trio is a collaboration between composer/producer Britton Powell and two Berlin-based artists, the British composer/cellist Lucy Railton and the electronic artist Brian Leeds (Huerco S). 

At the outset of these sessions Powell presented a series of compositional sketches anchored around multi-tracked electronics and acoustic percussion. These concepts were then used as the framework for collective improvisation, with the musicians working on instinct and layering as many as eight separate takes across a track. A portion of the record also reflects moments that are purely spontaneous – in-the-moment invention with Railton on electronics and cello and Powell and Leeds working on laptop computers.

The composition process involved little in the way of overt instruction, instead favoring discussion on more abstract notions of feel and energy. As a result, the final product was a bit surprising to all involved. “I don’t think the three of us had any idea how heavy and physical this thing was going to feel,” reflects Powell. 

Subsequently reduced, edited, and collaged by Powell over the next two years, Pilled Up on a Couple of Doves presents a succession of alien moods. Gauzy textures are buoyed by extreme low end pressure. Serene industrial hum illuminates the rhythmic beating of waveforms. The sounds frequently evoke opposing emotions -- tenderness and anxiety, claustrophobia and transcendence. 

The record culminates in 20-minute closer “49 Days,” where gradually unfurling textures for cello and electronics mirror the overtones of a ringing gong. It’s unsettling, but deeply meditative. A map of liminal space. Music to get lost to. “One thing that’s important in relation to my work with music is to access a place outside of physical space,” says Powell. “To pursue music as a tool to reach a place outside of physical existence.” 

“There's something really simple, innocent, and timeless about working with acoustic percussion instruments,” explains Powell. “I think that they allow for a very true examination of sound. It feels vulnerable and really powerful at the same time.

_

Britton Powell is a composer and producer based in Brooklyn, New York. Through means of electronics, video, and percussion his work explores psycho-acoustic phenomena, minimalism, and traditions of non-western music. Powell’s music has appeared at venues around the world including Centre Pompidou (Paris), The Barbican Center (London), Today’s Art Festival (Den Haag), Ultima Festival (Oslo), Unsound Festival (Krakow), The Kitchen (NYC), and The Guggenheim House (Japan). His work has been featured in The New Yorker, Washington Post, BOMB Magazine, and Wire Magazine among others. He has worked on recordings for Warp Records, Mexican Summer Records, Shelter Press, Unseen Worlds, and Catch Wave Ltd. Powell has worked and collaborated with Jon Hassell, Matmos, Lucy Railton, Marshall Allen, Jon Gibson, Huerco S, and many others.
-
Lucy Railton is a cellist, composer and sound artist based in Berlin and London. She has released albums on Modern Love, Editions Mego/GRM, PAN and Takuroku. Following formal classical training in the UK and the US, she moved her focused towards improvisation, contemporary and electronic music, collaborating with a range of artists including Rebecca Salvadori, Alison Knowles, Peter Zinovieff, Catherine Lamb, Beatrice Dillon, Kali Malone and the writer Laura Grace Ford to name a few, with appearances at Tate Modern, ICA London, Dark Mofo (Tasmania), CTM (Berlin), Barbican, Koln Philharmonie, Maison de la Radio (Paris), Blank Forms (New York) and many more. In recent years she has been involved in projects highlighting the work of Maryanne Amacher, James Tenney, Sofia Jernberg, Morton Feldman, Pauline Oliveros and Iannis Xenakis and her engagement with this repertoire has occasioned extensive explorations of resonance, psychoacoustics, synthesis and microtonality, preoccupations that are ever present in her own work.
-
Fueled by an ethos less bound by genre and more bound by feeling, Brian Leeds makes music for the mind and for the (dance) floor, finding lost artifacts and carving out sounds that speak to an altered state of home. His fast-evolving works as Huerco S - released on Software, Proibito, Opal Tapes, and Future Times - comes with a sonic palette of recontextualisation, low fidelity, and a subtle sense of humor long missing from the genre. His later ambient works, both as Huerco S and as Pendant, mark a shift away from the club and into a smeared landscape with no clear horizon, channelling an eerie but welcoming uncertainty. These feelings have been further developed on his label, West Mineral Ltd., whose stated aim is “to release everything except for commonly accepted, traditional forms of late 20th / early 21st century dance music”.

PDP III

→ Listen
→ Order

Metadata

Printed artwork on matt-finished sleeve and innersleeve.
350 copies on black vinyl

Tracklist LP

A1. Permanent Display (03:48)
A2. Calendar of Days (05:39)
A3. Channel 3 (03:19)
A4. Walls of Kyoto (06:50)
B1. 49 Days (19:46)

Tracklist Digital

1. Permanent Display (03:48)
2. Calendar of Days (05:39)
3. Channel 3 (03:19)
4. Walls of Kyoto (06:50)
5. 49 Days (19:46)

Recording Credits

1. Permanent Display

Britton Powell: Electronics, Tascam Portastudio
Lucy Railton: Cello, Electronics
Brian Leeds: Electronics & Samples
Al Carlson: Engineering
Gabriel Schuman: Mixing & Mastering

2. Calendar of Days

Britton Powell: Electronics, Samples, Percussion (40” Sabian Gong, Cymbal)
Lucy Railton: Voice
Brian Leeds: Electronics & Samples
George Bennett: Percussion (40” Sabian Gong)
Al Carlson: Engineering
Gabriel Schuman: Mixing & Mastering

3. Channel 3

Britton Powell: Electronics & Samples
Lucy Railton: Electronics, Voice
Brian Leeds: Electronics & Samples
Al Carlson: Engineering
Gabriel Schuman: Mixing & Mastering

4. Walls of Kyoto

Britton Powell: Electronics & Samples
Lucy Railton: Electronics
Brian Leeds: Electronics & Samples
Amplified HVAC @ Gary’s Electric
Al Carlson: Engineering
Gabriel Schuman: Mixing & Mastering

5. 49 Days

Britton Powell: Electronics, Percussion (40” Sabian Gong, Cymbal), Upright Bass
Lucy Railton: Cello, Electronics
Brian Leeds: Electronics & Samples
Al Carlson: Engineering
Gabriel Schuman: Mixing & Mastering

—

Production & Arrangement: Britton Powell
Co-Production: Lucy Railton & Brian Leeds
Written by: Britton Powell, Lucy Railton, & Brian Leeds
Engineering: Al Carlson
Engineering Assistant: Robbie Aceto
Recorded @ Gary's Electric Studio - Brooklyn, New York: December 2018
Mixed & Mastered by Gabriel Schuman @ The Rut - Brooklyn, New York: 2019-20

Artwork by Ira Cohen,
“Alien Intelligence”, 1967, Mylar Chamber Series, Ira Cohen Archives, LLC

About

Pilled Up on a Couple of Doves is the debut full-length by PDP III, who fell into alignment in December of 2018 amid a handful of immersive and improvisatory recording sessions held at Gary’s Electric Studio in Brooklyn, New York. The trio is a collaboration between composer/producer Britton Powell and two Berlin-based artists, the British composer/cellist Lucy Railton and the electronic artist Brian Leeds (Huerco S). 

At the outset of these sessions Powell presented a series of compositional sketches anchored around multi-tracked electronics and acoustic percussion. These concepts were then used as the framework for collective improvisation, with the musicians working on instinct and layering as many as eight separate takes across a track. A portion of the record also reflects moments that are purely spontaneous – in-the-moment invention with Railton on electronics and cello and Powell and Leeds working on laptop computers.

The composition process involved little in the way of overt instruction, instead favoring discussion on more abstract notions of feel and energy. As a result, the final product was a bit surprising to all involved. “I don’t think the three of us had any idea how heavy and physical this thing was going to feel,” reflects Powell. 

Subsequently reduced, edited, and collaged by Powell over the next two years, Pilled Up on a Couple of Doves presents a succession of alien moods. Gauzy textures are buoyed by extreme low end pressure. Serene industrial hum illuminates the rhythmic beating of waveforms. The sounds frequently evoke opposing emotions -- tenderness and anxiety, claustrophobia and transcendence. 

The record culminates in 20-minute closer “49 Days,” where gradually unfurling textures for cello and electronics mirror the overtones of a ringing gong. It’s unsettling, but deeply meditative. A map of liminal space. Music to get lost to. “One thing that’s important in relation to my work with music is to access a place outside of physical space,” says Powell. “To pursue music as a tool to reach a place outside of physical existence.” 

“There's something really simple, innocent, and timeless about working with acoustic percussion instruments,” explains Powell. “I think that they allow for a very true examination of sound. It feels vulnerable and really powerful at the same time.

_

Britton Powell is a composer and producer based in Brooklyn, New York. Through means of electronics, video, and percussion his work explores psycho-acoustic phenomena, minimalism, and traditions of non-western music. Powell’s music has appeared at venues around the world including Centre Pompidou (Paris), The Barbican Center (London), Today’s Art Festival (Den Haag), Ultima Festival (Oslo), Unsound Festival (Krakow), The Kitchen (NYC), and The Guggenheim House (Japan). His work has been featured in The New Yorker, Washington Post, BOMB Magazine, and Wire Magazine among others. He has worked on recordings for Warp Records, Mexican Summer Records, Shelter Press, Unseen Worlds, and Catch Wave Ltd. Powell has worked and collaborated with Jon Hassell, Matmos, Lucy Railton, Marshall Allen, Jon Gibson, Huerco S, and many others.
-
Lucy Railton is a cellist, composer and sound artist based in Berlin and London. She has released albums on Modern Love, Editions Mego/GRM, PAN and Takuroku. Following formal classical training in the UK and the US, she moved her focused towards improvisation, contemporary and electronic music, collaborating with a range of artists including Rebecca Salvadori, Alison Knowles, Peter Zinovieff, Catherine Lamb, Beatrice Dillon, Kali Malone and the writer Laura Grace Ford to name a few, with appearances at Tate Modern, ICA London, Dark Mofo (Tasmania), CTM (Berlin), Barbican, Koln Philharmonie, Maison de la Radio (Paris), Blank Forms (New York) and many more. In recent years she has been involved in projects highlighting the work of Maryanne Amacher, James Tenney, Sofia Jernberg, Morton Feldman, Pauline Oliveros and Iannis Xenakis and her engagement with this repertoire has occasioned extensive explorations of resonance, psychoacoustics, synthesis and microtonality, preoccupations that are ever present in her own work.
-
Fueled by an ethos less bound by genre and more bound by feeling, Brian Leeds makes music for the mind and for the (dance) floor, finding lost artifacts and carving out sounds that speak to an altered state of home. His fast-evolving works as Huerco S - released on Software, Proibito, Opal Tapes, and Future Times - comes with a sonic palette of recontextualisation, low fidelity, and a subtle sense of humor long missing from the genre. His later ambient works, both as Huerco S and as Pendant, mark a shift away from the club and into a smeared landscape with no clear horizon, channelling an eerie but welcoming uncertainty. These feelings have been further developed on his label, West Mineral Ltd., whose stated aim is “to release everything except for commonly accepted, traditional forms of late 20th / early 21st century dance music”.