Andrew Weathers - Catalogs: Sound Pieces with Text and 10 Unrealized Scores
Andrew Weathers - Catalogs: Sound Pieces with Text and 10 Unrealized Scores - listen on Bandcamp
I was listening to this cassette while cooking the other day. My housemate walks in and tells me how she hopes her future child grows up interested in music as weird as this. The audio works are a mixture of field recordings, teaming with life (animals, insects, water, and all kinds of documented experiences) blended with tones, melody, and processed spoken word. There are moments of discord and there are moments of melody. Even though the reading of dream journals can give a fragmented sense of direction, the album as a whole is cohesive in it’s meditative feeling. Whether or not it really was Roy Orbison or there was a magenta cactus, these events are still connected by the same river.
On top of over an hour and a half of audio, there are 10 ‘unrealized scores’ printed on cards accompanying the cassette. One side of the cards has photography of nature shots in the American Southwest. The other side of the cards have instructions for creating new audio works. These ideas seem like, for the most part, would work best in the area of Texas near the border of New Mexico that Andrew Weathers calls home. These ideas seem pretty fun, and at least can be a jumping off point for alternate ideas.
Earlier this year he released a fantastic instrumental album with Hayden Peigo titled Big Tex, Here We Come. This album is my go to for cruising through the woods. There are guitars, banjo, and piano, with occasional synth magic underneath.
The Andrew Weathers Ensemble released their fifth and final full-length album one year from the writing of this posting titled, The Thousand Birds in the Earth, The Thousand Birds in the Sky. It’s 4 epic songs that span 41 minutes featuring 18 collaborators.
If you’re unfamiliar with his back catalog, there is a wide diversity in the archive of music on his Bandcamp page. If that’s not enough, he also operates Full Spectrum Records, who recently celebrated their 100th release with a 100 minute collaborative track.
As of this writing there a few physical copies of Catalogs: Sound Pieces with Text and 10 Unrealized Scores on the Full Spectrum Bandcamp page.