Packaging Notes
Audiophile 180gram pressing in midnight ultra-black vinyl from Optimal (Germany) comes in a thick 24pt paperboard jacket printed on textured and uncoated 100% recycled Orford cardstock, with black polylined paper dust sleeve, a 12"x24" poster printed on matte offset paper and a 320kbps MP3 download card.
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Tracklist
1. Stand Above The Streams Pt. 1
2. Stand Above The Streams Pt. 2
3. Stand Above The Streams Pt. 3
4. Stand Above The Streams Pt. 4
Running time: 00:41:20
Packaging Notes
Audiophile 180gram pressing in midnight ultra-black vinyl from Optimal (Germany) comes in a thick 24pt paperboard jacket printed on textured and uncoated 100% recycled Orford cardstock, with black polylined paper dust sleeve, a 12"x24" poster printed on matte offset paper and a 320kbps MP3 download card.
Description
Jason Sharp has emerged as one of Canada's most fascinating New Music composers in recent years. From his roots as a saxophonist in Montréal's fertile jazz and improv scene, Sharp developed as a soloist with drone-based durational music, circular breathing, and an increasing exploration of the body and technology.
His impressive 2016 debut A Boat Upon Its Blood was a molten and musically diverse work of modern composition inspired by a Robert Creeley poem, distinguished by Sharp’s use of a heart monitor and amplified breath to trigger various rhythmic and textural electronic elements – alongside his own saxophone playing and contributions from guest players on violin and lap steel guitar.
Stand Above The Streams expands on this approach, with Sharp having further developed his custom Midi and synthesis apparatuses, and most notably collaborating on these compositions with Adam Basanta, whose renowned practice in sound art, sound installation and autonomous sound systems makes for impressively immersive, layered and complex new work.
All sound sources on Stand Above The Streams originate with Sharp (with the exception of violin from the album’s co-producer and mixing engineer Jesse Zubot on one song): bass and baritone saxophones, heartbeat, pulse, and breathing are played/processed in real time through Sharp's own signal-bending synthesis rig and through Basanta’s bespoke 'controlled feedback' amplification system. The album's rhythms are generated wholly from Sharp's similarly controlled breathing and heart rate. The results are utterly gripping, with melodic and micro-tonal elements flowing amidst waves of atmospheric pink and brown noise, low-end modulation and calibrated distortion.
Through four parts each running in the 10-minute range, Stand Above The Streams conjures an evocative, abstracted survey of organic nature, perhaps from on high, like a satellite scanning and processing data across diverse and slowly changing landscapes. The album also sits very comfortably alongside the recent resurgence in synth-based soundtrack music (John Carpenter, Tangerine Dream et al) – though as alien as it can sometimes sound, there is an unmistakable human element and underlying warmth that courses through the tensile strength of this music, electrifying it with the viscera of the body.
Thanks for listening.
Credits
Jason Sharp: Amplified heart, feedback, synthesizers, bass and baritone saxophonesAdam Basanta: Controlled feedback and amplification systems
All compositions by Jason Sharp
This music was performed wearing a customized heart monitor providing a single pulse to trigger analogue drums, sine wave patterns, controlled feedback, and synthesizers in real time. All electronic rhythmic material stems from this source.
Recorded by Radwan Ghazi Moumneh at Hotel2Tango in Montreal
Mixed by Radwan Ghazi Moumneh and Jesse Zubot
Co-produced by Jason Sharp and Jesse Zubot
Mastered by Harris Newman at Greymarket Mastering
Guests
Jesse Zubot: Violin (track 2)Reviews
"Sharp continues to synthesise his vast array of influences into his distinctive style of electroacoustic music. Electronic pulse plays a key role, as does some artful sampling and a few subtle jabs of John Carpenter-esque synth lines. Sharp’s sax appears too, while his toolbox of crystalline processed sounds does the musical heavy lifting. While guest instrumentalists fleshed out his 2016 debut, Stand Above The Streams scrapes away those chamber rock semblances and deals more in synthesis, leading to even more microscopic detail and alien timbres. Stand Above The Streams makes it clear that the home of post-rock is carving out a niche as the home of whatever lies beyond." – The Wire
"Sharp’s confluence of primal and visionary techniques proves he is a singular talent on a record that is startlingly unfamiliar yet strangely lucid. The result is bewitching, and decidedly human. The sheer variety of resonance and expression created by electrical processes and his playing are enthralling... a work of highly tuned suspense." – MusicOHM
"A triumph. Somehow more dramatic than his debut, this record sees Sharp’s horn playing dominate proceedings – he plays his bass and baritone saxes as harsh snippets or as unrelenting sheets. There’s so much going on in this record it’s hard to know what to highlight – sounds rise up like condensing steam against modular electronic mutations that couldn’t be any less their opposite. It meets in the most remarkable of intersections, between Sharp’s doomy, devastated playing and his warm, hopeful heart." – Norman
"Listening to Stand Above The Streams feels much like taking a gargantuan and terrific journey through the human body, where something alien and unknown is hidden away deep down amongst the layers of our own skin. It is akin to the blood rushing through our own body, our own hearts beating to a rhythmic time clock, accompanied by the saxophone that grumbles and murmurs or screeches in terror. It’s difficult to get one’s head around sometimes, but the experience is nothing short of exhilarating." – Echoes & Dust
"Conjured via his custom rig incorporating various modes of electronic synthesis, all of which he combines with the snaking rasp of his saxophone, the effect is mesmerizing – resembles Stars Of The Lid pursuing the Sun Ra Arkestra into an electricity substation." – Electronic Sound
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