Observe Ember Weeks, by Cursillistas

Observe Ember Weeks

by Cursillistas

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Limited Edition 12" Black Vinyl with Glow-in-the-Dark Silkscreen Cover
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Final copies from the original 2011 pressing on L'animaux Tryst! Heavyweight black 12" vinyl with center label design by Dawn Aquarius and Nicholas Barker, glossy cardstock insert, and foldover art paper cover with glow-in-the-dark five-layer silkscreen cover by Em Johnson. Hand numbered to 225!

Includes unlimited streaming of Observe Ember Weeks via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	Lake Dig Rising 05:23	buy track
2.	Bed Of Weeds 02:47	buy track
3.	Howling Wind II 03:09	buy track
4.	Frontier Gothic 07:20	buy track
5.	Send Your Sea 02:27	buy track
6.	When The Gallows Speak > Grateful Gallows > Bear Tomb Reprise 05:44	buy track
7.	New Seeds 02:51	buy track
8.	Bona Dea 07:20	buy track
9.	Saudade 02:13	buy track
10.	Shallows 03:24	buy track

about

"Observe Ember Weeks was the final statement from my first solo project, Cursillistas, which was my primary musical guise from 2005 through 2009. Finding community within the New Weird America / free-folk movement that had taken hold in the underground during and just prior to that time, the project alternated and combined feathery folk elements with the more serrated edges of the Fangs and Arrows contingent, steeped in drone, noise, and howling winds. Sometimes performing live as a solo act, but more typically as a duo, trio, or quartet with various members of my L'animaux family in Portland and Brunswick, Maine, Cursillistas always balanced dark with light, soft with heavy, composition with improvisation, and community with solitude across a prolific five-year run of CD-Rs, tapes, and vinyl releases.

OEW was intended for years in my mind to be THE ONE that would rise from the underground and present my idiosyncratic work to a much larger audience. I spent years laboring over the songs, performances, and recordings - the rare album in my career where some songs were re-recorded and heavily edited in order to create a more palatable expression. Its creation loomed over every other release I managed to put out in the meantime, as well as the ill-fated cross-country tour in Fall 2009 that eventually put the project to its final rest, Herbcraft rising from its ashes.

Still, I was compelled to release the not-quite-finished record in some way a couple years later, even with Cursillstas dormant and Herbcraft in full swing. In late 2011, I pressed just 225 copies on vinyl as one of the last releases on L'animaux Tryst, packaged in a fold-over art paper sleeve decorated with a five-layer silkscreen print by my friend and onetime-Cursillistas collaborator Em Johnson. Vinyl pressing delays are not a new thing for me; though "released" in October 2011, the vinyl wasn't complete and ready to ship until February 2012 – this delay, combined with the fact that I was actively moving away from the project, meant that the album came and went without much notice.

Though I thought the record had been sold out for nearly a decade, while packing up for a recent move, I found a handful that had been stored in an archive box, moved from basement to barn to basement countless times in the interim. It's fascinating to revisit this work now, remembering the weight it once held in my mind, the seeking and longing and disappointment all wrapped in its warped take on American folk music. I'm pleased to finally present it now, ten years later, as a digital release and streaming premiere on a label and to an audience that I never could have dreamed up back when I was making it."

-ML

credits

released October 4, 2011

Written & recorded January 2007 - September 2009; mixed & mastered 2010-2011 by Matt LaJoie.

All instruments and vocals by Matt LaJoie, except:
"When the Gallows Speak"
Ian Paige: bass guitar
Alyce Ornella: electric slide guitar

"Grateful Gallows / Bear Tomb Reprise"
Dawn Aquarius: electric slide guitar
Ian Paige: electric guitar

"Bona Dea"
Dawn Aquarius: electric slide guitar, vocals, and percussion

Cover photo and 5-layer silkscreen print by Em Johnson; layout assistance by Nicholas Barker.

Originally released on L'animaux Tryst (field) Recordings (LTFR-1204-STEREO)

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Flower Room Portland, Maine

Exploration & discoveries in improvisation & harmonization ☄ Tonal cosmology, virtual rurality, and hymns to the cosmos and the natural world, to heal and inspire a more harmonious You-We-All ☤ Welcome

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