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Paraclete Tongue

by Matt LaJoie

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  • Streaming + Download

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Hand-numbered and limited to 300! Black 12" vinyl record in classic ricepaper-style inner sleeve, with pro-printed full-color matte finish jacket.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Paraclete Tongue via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days
    edition of 300 
    Purchasable with gift card

      $18 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Collect both of Matt's limited edition vinyl releases of 2021 with a Nice Price discount! Includes standard 12" black vinyl copies of Paraclete Tongue (limited to 300) and Red Resonant Earth (limited to 400), plus digital download for both albums.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Paraclete Tongue via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $30 USD or more 

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 98 Flower Room releases available on Bandcamp and save 85%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Lilac of the Valley, On Garudan Wing, Flight Path, ML rootless, Crop Circle, Searching, Flowering, On the Crystal Seas, and 90 more. , and , .

    Excludes subscriber-only releases.

    Purchasable with gift card

      $54.53 USD or more (85% OFF)

     

  • Deluxe Collector's Edition Black Vinyl with Two Bonus Tapes and Custom Art
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Hand-numbered limited edition of 50! The deluxe version of the Collector's Edition of Paraclete Tongue includes the album on classic black 12" vinyl, held in rice paper inner sleeve and matte pro-printed jacket, along with the exclusive bonus tapes Sun Language and Forged in the Crucible (home-dubbed and held in our signature wraparound tip-on polybox hand-assembled cases), plus a one-of-a-kind hand-drawn/painted original piece of art by Matt.

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

    Sold Out

  • Collector's Edition Black Vinyl with "Sun Language" Bonus Tape
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Hand-numbered limited edition of 50! The Collector's Edition of Paraclete Tongue includes the album on classic black 12" vinyl, held in rice paper inner sleeve and matte pro-printed jacket, as well as the exclusive bonus tape Sun Language on bright yellow c38 (home-dubbed and held in our signature wraparound tip-on polybox hand-assembled cases).

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

    Sold Out

  • Limited Edition Cassette + Fire Agate Gemstone Package
    Cassette + Digital Album

    Hand-numbered and limited to 100! Home-dubbed music grade Type I tape with candlewick-colored shell, autographed A-side label and hand-stamped B-side, held in a hand-assembled pro-printed wraparound tip-on polybox case, and includes a small fire agate gemstone.

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

    Sold Out

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about

Arriving 10 inconceivable, cloistered months after his sylvan Everlasting Spring LP landed, Paraclete Tongue is the third in solo guitarist Matt LaJoie's planned series of five records focused on the energy of a particular element - this time radiating inspiration from the fire element in the form of sunlight, candlelit altars, and the shimmering dance of far-off star systems. Shifting from the riverbed acoustic tones of his previous water-themed disc, Paraclete Tongue’s flame of inspiration is channeled entirely through an electric six-string, with chiming harmonics and warm, growling hums of analog fuzz coloring the edges of four extended loop-based improvisations that aim to expand the frontier of 21st century guitar soli.

Going into the recording of his third LP, LaJoie's intent was to record two sidelong pieces blending a minimal amount of composition with vast spaces for improvisation. The refrain and structure of "Flame of Incarnation" came first; a musical representation of the accumulation of consciousness and dissolution of karma across lifetimes, the song begins tentatively in abstract clouds of temple bell reverberations before blooming into its main theme. As the brief melody expands into ever-deepening exploratory passages, LaJoie continues to compose on the fly by utilizing the live looping function of the DL4 pedal, forging forward until the road ends and collapses back into the original theme. Each subsequent run through the cycle yields new rewards, the piece breaking down and reforming in an evolutionary way, growing ever more complex and joyful toward its homecoming conclusion.

"Flame of Incarnation" is stoked in its final seconds by the introduction of a warm blanket of analog fuzz—a first for LaJoie's solo guitar albums—courtesy of the custom Anderson Sound Systems Green Freaker pedal. Thus lit, the fuzz adds an ember’s cast to the spontaneously arising “Sunrise on Magic Meadow” and “Kandelbright Grotto”, the former a patient-then-envigorated bask in morning rays, while the latter imagines the holy glow of a sacred altar space deep inside an underwater cave. Both stretch the tonal and textural range of the Fender Mustang to resemble synthesizers and bass guitar, a sound harkening back to the A-side of debut LP The Center and The Fringe (a record representing the etheric element) while still striving into bold new terrain. In contrast to these two totally improvised pieces, lead single “Kuchina’s Dance” is more premeditatively composed than anything released on LaJoie’s prior LPs, looping a simple melodic figure with a soft touch, and gradually filling in the spaces as the music’s gentle sway leads into evermore emotive and ecstatic whirls. Somewhere between folk, classical, and new age lies the subgenre brilliantly coined “cosmic pastoral” by guitarist William Tyler; “Kuchina’s Dance” is wonderfully at home in that field, offering meditation, movement, and release in a single gesture.

Closing the door on 2020 and opening the curtains on a new year’s opportunities for liberation and healing, the bottled solar warmth within Paraclete Tongue’s utterances are being offered during some of our coldest, darkest days, in remembrance of the light ever shining just beyond our realm of perception.

credits

released January 1, 2021

Matt LaJoie: Fender Mustang, Green Freaker, DL4, Holy Grail

Performed live with no overdubs; recorded, mixed, and mastered by ML. Vinyl mastering and lacquer cut by Carl Saff. Cover painting by ML.

Special thanks to Sam at Anderson Sound Systems for the custom Green Freaker analog fuzz pedal used on these recordings.

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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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