owen pallett - island (2020)

Interview here with Q in Canada
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-DwLAn2EWI

And a performance of Polar Vortex
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGWuMbNVCoM

In a EAC#G#AE (?) tuning which feels kinda Joni, though not sure if that's one she's actually used.

this is great owen. You got skinny dude!

https://pasteboard.co/6eec9ba7-0a79-484f-808e-1d63a9bb3dbc
The imagery is very fitting for "A Bloody Morning" and it kind of encompasses the whole album. I like when images/music perfectly encapsulate a strange feeling. I'm not listening to the lyrics that much as I play this album on youtube. I don't need them to understand the album's undertones.

https://i.imgur.com/VZJcC6h.jpg

what's up with this nerd and his --> songs, eh? EH!?!!

Philip Glass calls them "knee plays" in Einstein and I like the idea of it, not songs but transitions. Early days, I wanted all the segues to able to be independently sequenced into their own continuous track... the "→" on the first album segues into the "→" on the second album. But that was over-shooting, like, I'm aiming for "immersive", not solipsistic, so I gave that idea up

<3

my fav knee play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL9Rjn7EiRw

Never heard of a knee play before, and just dove into Einstein on the Beach for the first time. This is so far removed from anything I've ever listened to before, but I like it so much. I feel like I'm listening to something wonky--like there's a depth I'm not equipped to access, but I'm still finding myself affected by it. I'm sure there's a Philip Glass thread already, so I'll probably head over there for more recommendations.

Took a couple days off from Island after spending a lot of time with it, but returning now to listen again with fresh ears. Something I want to start considering while listening to all the Spectrum-related material is what snippets we can gather about denizens other than Lewis--what was their relationship to Owen? What can we learn by thinking about them (or their relative absence in the broader narrative)? It's possible the thread doesn't lead anywhere that deep, but it will be a fun exercise nonetheless.

Not as much talk about this album here as I expected. I can only assume I'm not the only one fully engulfed in its stark, naked glory. I tread carefully and save playing it for moments when I can be all ears, and alone, listening to it. Any description I try and give will be an embarrassment, but it awakens something almost primal within me, something deeply personal. It has an insanely powerful effect on me - it's almost too much. At the best and worst of times 'Island' just destroys me in the best and worst possible way.

This album was kind of saving me last week when I was really struggling. It's hard to articulate just how much these songs move me.

Hoping there's a vinyl announcement soon.

Kind of listening to it sparingly because it's such an imposing record. A Bloody Morning is such a monstrously powerful piece of music. It hits as hard as The Riverbed.

Feels like Island has generally got very little coverage in fact but I would be surprised if people didn't come around to it.

people = more journalists i mean

I didnt even know this had come out til just now stumbling upon it by chance. And I just listened to/watched the video for A Bloody Morning and I am crying, why am I crying? I never cry at anything and I can't stop, jesus fuck.

I just found a file called "Transformer (Guitar Demo)" from something called Art Week 2016 on an old harddrive and it's the first song off this record.

https://unlimitedfreemilkshakes.bandcamp.com/album/art-week-2016

I know it was written a few years ago but I’ve not come across another verse that captures 2020 quite like this one:

“I’ve mistaken self-indulgence for self-care
But do not be scared
Surely some disaster will descend and equalize us
A crisis will unify the godless
And the fearless, and the righteous”

Haha I was thinking about how apt that lyric is the other day.

The line is meant to be wistful and a little myopic, and I felt guilty about its meaning during the pandemic, seeing as the reverse (if anything) is true, global disasters only deepen class divides, i.e.

In lieu of "normal methods of album promotion" I've been making lil videos and posting them to Instagram, I did a cover of "River Man" last week

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBMMdvigNhx/

mmmm one of my fave songs. nice cover! would love to get that commercially if it's available anywhere!

good job on the music to recorder: the marion stokes project btw, i enjoyed

xpost

I think maybe the prophetic certainty about an all-encompassing disaster is what hits pretty close to home about now--and the truest section being mistaken self-indulgence for self-care. I play competitive video games and drink myself into a stupor saying I'm treating myself, but self-care for me is almost never giving into my urges; self-care at it's best for me is discipline.

I'm surprised to hear about your guilt fgti, because I didn't take Lewis's perspective as a truth in my reading. I took it as a continued demonstration of a longstanding Achilles heel of Lewis's. In personal crisis, he becomes blind to inequities perpetrated by himself and others:

Disillusionment with farmlife (personal crisis) -> Violent crusades (replacing one systemic order with another)
Disillusionment with crusading (personal crisis)-> Owen's murder (unilaterally destroying a system of order)

We see him start to come to terms with this in Saints: "Nobody wanted him dead," followed by a shift in the violence he perpetrates as described below.

Emptiness in the wake of an Owen-less existence (personal crisis) -> Reconnecting with previous violence through the adolescent invincibility Lewis feels leading to Sound of the Engines (anarchic violence, in a way. Maybe imposing the only order he knows, which is personal conquest. And failing, in this instance.)

Emptiness in the wake of an Owen-less existence (personal crisis continued) -> A Bloody Morning (at best, negligent violence; at worst, spiteful and angry murder)

Lewis doesn't come around to full redemption, based on the lyric above--he's still outsourcing the salvation of others: first to Owen, then to anarchy, then to some disaster. But always to something bigger than him for which he acts as a catalyst.

That was my reading, anyway, which I think absolves the author. Feel somewhat conflicted about talking about my reading to the author themself.

It's fine, there are people posting on my own forum their theories and they're gratifying to read.

That's an interesting interpretation. When I think about Lewis, I think that he's "instinct", the amygdala-- what you term as "crisis" is, to me, just the instinctive animal mind behaving the way it does. Owen is "rational thought", the cortex. The two individuals are figuratively different beings, but literally part of the same entitity-- just as Werther and Charlotte are aspects of Goethe

And thanks johnny.. I'm auditing the score to "Recorder" again this afternoon to see if I feel good enough about it to release it as a separate OST-- when the movie was finished I was feeling discouraged about it but time might've changed my mind

it's really good!

FYI, Owen performance in about 90 minutes on blogotheque’s Instagram live: here

This is great. A beautifully slow 'I Am Not Afraid' on guitar now.

I find Instagram live is not a great format for anything but this was still fab.

"A Bloody Morning" is also my favorite (I hadn't even noticed that lovely verse Roz likes).

It reminds me of late eighties John Cale.

Agreed Lamonti. This was the first of these 'lockdown' shows I've watched. W/ 40mins or so it was a perfect length (ie. not longer).

I miss the vibey keyboards on the new live version of Lewis Takes Off His Shirt but change is good! You must really trust your guitar straps OP :)

Thanks for watching! Yeah that guitar strap combined with some extra sun on my shoulders has left me feeling raw today.

really big fan of the drums in "a bloody morning"

almost like it's a good drummer ;)

oh it's greg fox! of course!

tbr it is so great hearing Fox doing something a little more restrained than usual, his touch and sensitivity really comes through

as a big possession fan i love the "paragon of order" lyric about sisters faith and chance

Searched but didn't get a hit - is there a cd version coming?

Brad you’re the only person in the world who caught that and yes you’re right

CD/vinyl in November? I’m getting a whopping NINE releases all pressed at the same time (soundtracks, reissues etc)

Also I broke edge yesterday and had some White Claws at a Pride party and I just realized that I changed my username to remind myself of a new product idea that’s a hybrid of wet wipes and hot pockets

Thanks for the cd info! I will be patient.

Was holding out for a CD but could t Stan RKT anymore so bought files the other day. This is wonderful. The Drake-y guitar is beautiful and unexpected- that note is well deserved.

Thank you, Owen.

That’s a strange typo.

this album unfortunately seems like it was very overlooked in general but it's absolutely one of the best this year

Thanks guys! I posted about it on Facebook, but last month I got a really nice note from "The Estate Of Nick Drake" (his sister and her partner). They said they "could hear the ghosts of Nick and Molly roaming through these songs" and that they "rejoiced that they were in such wonderful hands" :) They also gave me a book of Molly's poetry. So sweet!

aw that is very dear!

oh that is just the nicest thing