Releasing June 30, 2023 on cassette via Feeding Tube Records and CD-R via Cardinal Fuzz.
Recorded onto cassette 8 track in Central Oregon by Abronia. Mixed and Mastered at Torch Toucher by Eric Crespo.
From Byron Coley:
After recording three studio albums (two of which — 2019’s “The Whole of Each Eye” FTR498 and 2022’s “Map of Dawn” FTR669 — we were honored to co-release with Cardinal Fuzz), this amazing Portland OR sextet decided to try something different. An experiment. They packed a vanload of gear and headed out to a rural house in Central Oregon with an 8 track recorder. Besides their standard array of axes, they also brought various “little instruments” as well as acoustic strings and percussives of various stripes, then spent three full days jamming from very early to very late.
There was a lot improvisation, instrument swapping and musical hijinkery quite different from their standard approach. This resulted in a dozen tapes filled with all sorts of ideas and sounds, and the band started fiddling with them as soon as they got home. “The High Desert Sessions” is the result.
The music is arranged into two side-long suites, which ramble around some very weird stylistic junctures, ranging from dusty slide guitar segments to loud roars of Rock aktion, dissonant blares of jazzoid skronk and dreamy smears of shimmering sunshine avant-pop. There are also a few winks of the massive drum/guitar dualism for which Abronia is known. But most of this tape explores previously unvisited sonic regions.
The High Desert Sessions’s first side offers a relatively unhurried flow, the flip has more squirrely segmentation, but it’s all cool as hell. And heard as a whole, it may augur some new points-of-interest that Abronia might be visiting in the future. Or not. Because that is the nature of experimentation. But it’s very hep to have this aural peek into their ongoing process. Especially because it all sounds great.
Can’t wait for the next album!
Pre-Order the album on Bandcamp: https://abronia.bandcamp.com/album/the-high-desert-sessions
Tracklist:
1. Moving Furniture
2. Thrushes
3. No Time for a Fire
4. Rough Eyed J.E.R.K.S.
5. Open the Door for Water
6. Winged Seeds
7. Rolling Mass
8. Target Practice
9. Barely a Season
10. Liar
11. Artemisia
12. Hot Spirits
Lineup:
Keelin Mayer / Vocals, Tenor Saxophone
Shaun Lyvers / Bass
Rick Pedrosa / Pedal Steel, Percussion
Paul Michael Schaefer / Guitar
Shaver / The Big Drum, Melodica, Percussion
Eric Crespo / Guitar, Backing Vocals
