more from
Thrill Jockey Records
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.
/
  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Seer is being re-pressed to coincide with the release of Golden Retriever's new album Rotations. LP pressed on virgin vinyl and packaged in a stunning jacket with an artworked inner sleeve.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Seer via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $20 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $9 USD  or more

     

1.
Petrichor 06:21
2.
Sharp Stones 07:08
3.
Archipelago 06:43
4.
Flight Song 06:55
5.

about

Golden Retriever is the duo of Matt Carlson (modular synthesizer) and Jonathan Sielaff (bass clarinet), two musicians who blur the line between sounds created electronically and acoustically. The pair formed Golden Retriever in 2008 and began to develop a language informed by the practices of free improvisation as well as the tradition of American experimental electronic composers like Alvin Curran & David Behrman. Golden Retriever creates music that is creatively challenging and structurally complex while remaining inviting and emotionally dynamic rather than adopting a confrontational stance toward the listener.

Seer, their second release for Thrill Jockey, was recorded and assembled over the course of two years at the artists’ studio “Worksound” in Portland, OR. The relaxed timetable gave Carlson and Sielaff an opportunity to write based around new instruments and techniques and to spend considerable time meticulously editing the work. This extends the process employed on their Thrill Jockey debut Occupied with the Unspoken, composing and arranging using editing as a compositional tool.

The opening track “Petrichor” shows Carlson using an 11-limit just intonation system and can, if listened to at a significant volume, create otoacoustic emissions: the generation of new resonance within the inner-ear as a rectification of two perfectly toned and opposing frequencies. The use of this phenomenon as musical material was pioneered by Maryanne Amacher in her sound installations of the 70s and 80s. The song “Sharp Stones” finds Sielaff weaving complex melodic phrases over Carlson’s bed of synth-processed piano sounds, toying with the gestures of modal free jazz. Their ability to move between abstract sound exploration and traditionally engaging musical structures is demonstrated perfectly on “Flight Song,” which features a mantra-like bass clarinet melody beholden to shimmering synthesizer patterns. Golden Retriever’s compositions are inviting and relentlessly listenable, embracing both emotional depth and wild abandon without betraying the hidden framework of complexity within.

credits

released March 25, 2014

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Golden Retriever Portland, Oregon

Golden Retriever was formed in Portland, Or. in 2008 by multi-instrumentalists Jonathan Sielaff & Matt Carlson. Focusing on the relationship of two primarily monophonic instruments (modular synth & bass clarinet), and utilizing layering with a deft balance of improvisation & composition, the duo has created an infinitely varied approach to their sound world. ... more

contact / help

Contact Golden Retriever

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Golden Retriever, you may also like: