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• NOTE:
04 Spinning Wheels / 05 Glass Harmonica / 07 Quiet Turning /
are only on the CD/digital version.
LP tracklist:
A1 - Timebook
A2 - Our Medicine Is Working
A3 - Velta
A4 - Far Away
B1 - Earth Trio
B2 - Reps
B3 - Whiskey Sierra
B4 - The World Was Turning Before
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laaps 031
season: autumn
duration(s): 40.52 mn (LP) 61.04 mn (CD+Digital)
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Bill Seaman, Tim Diagram and Stephen Spera talked about making music together during the composing of the Architectures of Light album which Tim released on his Handstitched* imprint. Over the course of a few months this evolved into the new LAAPS album — "The World Was Turning Before" which focuses on a balance of sound making and collecting processes explored individually as well as between the three. The network of images of sonic imagination started forming into musical sketches— organic live pieces and soundscapes were slowly formed into delicately flowing musical collages. There is a beautiful subtlety of layering here, where images dissolve one into the other forming textures and shifting visions, as well as lovely minimal tonal gestures. This collaged tapestry forms from slightly different sources in each work, giving the album a rich diversity of sound perspectives, yet forms a strong cohesive whole.
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Bill Seaman is a musician, media artist and media researcher. He early on explored interactive and generative music (he calls this recombinant music). He has been working on a series of works that combine elements of ambient, noise, experimental, new classical and more. He describes these works as being alt.genre. He has recorded five solo albums (on Eilean Rec. and Fluid Audio) and a numerous of collaborative albums with some music artists such as Craig Tattersall, John Supko, Offthesky, Rutger Zuydervelt, Stephen Vitiello, between others. Seaman has also often created video works to accompany a number of his solo and collaborative pieces. Seaman is self-taught as a musician and composer, and is a Professor in the Music Department at Duke as well as Art, Arth History & Visual Studies.
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Since 2001, Maps and Diagrams has released over thirty-five albums as a solo artist or as part of collaboration projects, he has appeared on many well-respected labels, such as; False Industries, Static Caravan, Nomadic Kids Republic, Fluid Audio, Time Released Sound, Chemical Tapes – to name but a few. Tim runs the Handstitched* label in the UK which specialises in bespoke, handmade packaging for the more electro-acoustic and drone-like elements of his and other artists work, and he is involved in audio-visual commissions, including art gallery installations and music videos for a global clothing brand. As well as Maps and Diagrams, Tim also records music under the Atlantis name and works in collaboration with Genoveva Kachurkova as Bluhm, with Charles Sage as Hessien, alongside Rob Lyon as Somme & with Arbee under the name Emba.
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Stephen Spera is a New York based artist working in sound, photography, and plastic arts. His works have been released on some labels such as Handstitched, Tesselate, and Editions Vaché. In 2020 he began a series of collaborations with Bill Seaman, as the two artists admired each other’s work and found much in common. Their work together was graced with an ease which kept them composing an album- “Architectures of Light” -which was released on Britain’s Handstitched label. The project was very well-received. The two stay in touch and kept working, joined now by Tim Martin whose work as Maps and Diagrams was long-admired by Stephen and Bill. They too found instant understanding of each other’s work. The three artists possess an almost uncanny communication that enables them to work whilst still enjoying each other’s individual voice, and this trio has come together so well that, in Spera’s words, “We no longer know who played what…”
billseaman.bandcamp.com
www.billseaman.com
handstitched.bandcamp.com
stephenspera.bandcamp.com
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released October 23, 2023
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Seaman: Piano, Ebow Guitar, Analogue synth, DX7, non-location recordings, micro-rhythms, sample arrangements, glass harmonica samples, drones
Diagram: Guitar, Synth, location recordings, noise drones, sample arrangements
Spera: Synth, Vocal Arrangements, Location recordings, Wollensak reel-to reel, CB Radio, sample arrangements, Historical Vocal Recordings.
Voice samples sung by Tamalyn Miller
Recorded in 2022 - Produced by Seaman, Diagram, Spera
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Mastered by Ian Hawgood
Artwork by Russell Burden
Design by Sprflxgrfzm
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℗ & © 2 0 2 3 - l a a p s 0 3 1 ( s e q 0 4 )
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