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Evening Fires
Evening Fires – After the End of the World
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After the live-in-a-barn Holy Ghost Explosion, Evening Fires return to studio HQ and set the controls for the day after tomorrow. It may be overstating things to call After the End of the World a “concept album”, but there is a definite focus extending across the disc’s four lengthy tracks, resonating with the mood and atmosphere of the title. There’s also a pronounced overall shape: While still drawing heavily on improvisational methods, this is the most structured Evening Fires release to date, an unfolding organic (post-organic?) sense of direction that carries through the diversity of styles on hand – techno-kraut walls of synthesizers, winding psych-rock crunch, floating humid ambience, ecstatic freejazz energy music, underwater dreamscapes (w/violin), and other less definable sounds. A soundtrack for the collapse of the old and the dream of new birth. Four tracks, 67 minutes. |
$10.00
Evening Fires - Holy Ghost Explosion
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Evening Fires ’ ninth release was recorded fall 2009 in the hay-filled cathedral ambiance of a big old 1920s barn up in the hills of Central PA (horses present though not audible), and it documents a gtr/bs/drms/synths/violin lineup of the group working out some ceremonial performance themes, laying back and letting the spirit flow: Floating rustic space rock channeled into a sonic revival jamboree – testifying on the power of electricity, praise for the apple trees up on the hill, moments of amplified introspection, and plenty of good old sonic snake handling. And it’s all played live to 2-track stereo, for that authentic “field recordings captured by an early-21st Century folklorist searching for lost strains of North Appalachian Psychedelic Rock music” vibe that just can’t be found in the domesticated confines of yer proper-type recording studios. Six tracks, 54 minutes. |
$10.00
Evening Fires - Medicine Man
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A friend recently described Evening Fires' music as sounding as though Krautrock came from the Appalachians; to be honest, we weren't really sure what he meant at first, since it's hard to pinpoint any obvious influences. There are definitely some shared creative techniques though - hypnotic repetition, free improvisation, communal folk trance, devotional electronics, periodic noise overload, psychedelic production flourishes - and in EF's case it's all processed via a group mind rooted deep in the eastern hardwood forest, so maybe he was on to something after all. The eighth Evening Fires release, Medicine Man was brewed up in the midst of troubled times (personal and worldly) in the first part of 2010, from elements created over the preceding several years, with the larger goal of what my alchemist buddies used to call "compounding the elixir" - transcendence via distillation, y'know. As such, it features an expanded roster (eleven contributors from various phases of the group's existence) and a more elaborate exploration of the studio as instrument, with dense and trippy arrangements creating a surreal sonic landscape in multilevel motion, resulting (paradoxically) in both their most experimental and most accessible release yet. Seven tracks, 57 minutes. |
$10.00
Evening Fires - The Book of Wonders
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Evening Fires’ previous albums have been something of a challenge to peg stylistically, given all the various species of folk psychedelic noise space drone freeform rock comfortably coexisting out in their fields of sound. The Book of Wonders, the group’s seventh release, hardly tries to put up any fences, featuring as it does ceremonial synth destruction (with metal), rural space choogle, acid-etched guitar drone, shamanic tribal drums, and elevated raga extension. But with further organic integration of the elements and added electro-sonic muscle it does carve out some new-style earthworks of monumental intent across their Appalachian landscape. The world is the book, my friends, and the wonders are all around. Five tracks, 54 minutes. |
$10.00
Evening Fires - Waves In the Air
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Right on schedule, Evening Fires sail back around the ridge, riding an updraft of sonic bliss on the way to bring us their sixth full-length release. Several of the tracks on Waves In the Air took shape in preparation for a live radio show in summer 2008, and it's clear that the group mind at that point was focused on the possibilities of aetheric streaming and aerial transmission. Formed into a four-track suite that unfolds across some 50 minutes, bringing together saxophone raga & guitar psychedelia & the usual clouds of drone, collecting vibrations and beaming them onward, this is the sound of wide-eyed and windswept. Those whose antennae are similarly attuned are likely to find at least a bit of sympathetic reverberation. |
$10.00
Evening Fires - Blue Mountain Water
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Evening Fires' fourth release was originally planned for another label, but when it went belly-up we just had to give the album a rescue via Deep Water. In Fall 2007 a core trio version of the group took the sounds underground (literally – all tracks here were recorded in subterranean settings), exploring collective creation in mostly non-rock formats. The results are decidedly rustic (presented in genuine you-are-there-fi MONO-SONIC sound) and both outward- and inward-bound at the same time. From opiated acoustics to howling electronics to spacious tribal percussion explorations, Blue Mountain Water gives a window onto a spontaneous-shamanism side of the band not usually heard outside of the root cellars and mountain caverns of their northern Appalachian home. Five tracks, 45 minutes. |
$10.00
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