blueblue

14,00

out of stock

why we love this

Opening with vertical stripes and ending with horizontal ones, this album is indeed a multidirectional cross-section of many instruments and styles.

about the cassette

blueblue is a concise, tightly wound song suite by multi-instrumentalist Sam Gendel whose 14 tracks each correspond to a pattern within sashiko, a traditional style of Japanese embroidery.

The bulk of blueblue was recorded in isolation in a makeshift studio built in a cabin floating atop a tributary of Oregon’s Columbia River. Having sketched out a set of guitar melodies, Gendel recorded the album in five-or-so weeks, during which time he became well-acquainted with the river’s tidal rise and fall. This organic rhythm, which daily lifted the house to meet the horizon, later setting it down gently upon the riverbed, permeates the record. There are pops and groans and artifacts, and, in Tate-jima (縦縞, vertical stripes)—one of blueblue’s more plaintive tracks—even the faint lapping of water.

Equally essential to the feel of blueblue is Craig Weinrib’s kit work. Gendel and Weinrib collaborated long-distance during Gendel’s time in Oregon, with Gendel sending Weinrib half-finished songs, and giving him carte-blanche to record percussion. The end result is a relaxed, confident exchange between two clearly simpatico musicians, particularly evident in Weinrib’s gorgeously attentive brush technique.  

blueblue is a conceptually sound, mesmerizing, evocative, and sonically idiosyncratic album. In keeping with its name, blueblue functions as Gendel’s color study, conveying, through repetition and deviation, his devotion to a certain mood — unnamable, but certainly noirish, nostalgic, quasi-psychedelic, and existing in some permanent twilight.

An accessible and intoxicating entry-point into Gendel's ever-expanding catalog.

  1. 1 - Tate-jima (縦縞, vertical stripes) 2:39
  2. 2 - Tate-waku (竪沸く, rising steam) 5:14
  3. 3 - Hishi-igeta (菱井桁, parallel diamonds or crossed cords) 2:37
  4. 4 - Shippō (七宝, seven treasures of the Buddha) 3:46
  5. 5 - Toridasuki (鳥襷, interlaced circles of two birds) 3:02
  6. 6 - Fundō (分銅, counterweights) 7:03
  7. 7 - Kōshi (格子, checks) 3:46
  8. 8 - Amime (網目, fishing nets) 5:16
  9. 9 - Uroko (鱗, fish scales) 2:55
  10. 10 - Hishi-moyō (菱模様, diamonds) 3:47
  11. 11 - Kagome (籠目, woven bamboo) 3:36
  12. 12 - Nakamura kōshi (中村格子, plaid design of the Nakamura family) 1:16
  13. 13 - Yarai (矢来, bamboo fence) 2:20
  14. 14 - Yoko-jima (横縞, horizontal stripes) 4:44

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blueblue

14,00

out of stock

  1. 1 - Tate-jima (縦縞, vertical stripes) 2:39
  2. 2 - Tate-waku (竪沸く, rising steam) 5:14
  3. 3 - Hishi-igeta (菱井桁, parallel diamonds or crossed cords) 2:37
  4. 4 - Shippō (七宝, seven treasures of the Buddha) 3:46
  5. 5 - Toridasuki (鳥襷, interlaced circles of two birds) 3:02
  6. 6 - Fundō (分銅, counterweights) 7:03
  7. 7 - Kōshi (格子, checks) 3:46
  8. 8 - Amime (網目, fishing nets) 5:16
  9. 9 - Uroko (鱗, fish scales) 2:55
  10. 10 - Hishi-moyō (菱模様, diamonds) 3:47
  11. 11 - Kagome (籠目, woven bamboo) 3:36
  12. 12 - Nakamura kōshi (中村格子, plaid design of the Nakamura family) 1:16
  13. 13 - Yarai (矢来, bamboo fence) 2:20
  14. 14 - Yoko-jima (横縞, horizontal stripes) 4:44

Embed

Copy and paste this code to your site to embed.

why we love this

Opening with vertical stripes and ending with horizontal ones, this album is indeed a multidirectional cross-section of many instruments and styles.

about the cassette

blueblue is a concise, tightly wound song suite by multi-instrumentalist Sam Gendel whose 14 tracks each correspond to a pattern within sashiko, a traditional style of Japanese embroidery.

The bulk of blueblue was recorded in isolation in a makeshift studio built in a cabin floating atop a tributary of Oregon’s Columbia River. Having sketched out a set of guitar melodies, Gendel recorded the album in five-or-so weeks, during which time he became well-acquainted with the river’s tidal rise and fall. This organic rhythm, which daily lifted the house to meet the horizon, later setting it down gently upon the riverbed, permeates the record. There are pops and groans and artifacts, and, in Tate-jima (縦縞, vertical stripes)—one of blueblue’s more plaintive tracks—even the faint lapping of water.

Equally essential to the feel of blueblue is Craig Weinrib’s kit work. Gendel and Weinrib collaborated long-distance during Gendel’s time in Oregon, with Gendel sending Weinrib half-finished songs, and giving him carte-blanche to record percussion. The end result is a relaxed, confident exchange between two clearly simpatico musicians, particularly evident in Weinrib’s gorgeously attentive brush technique.  

blueblue is a conceptually sound, mesmerizing, evocative, and sonically idiosyncratic album. In keeping with its name, blueblue functions as Gendel’s color study, conveying, through repetition and deviation, his devotion to a certain mood — unnamable, but certainly noirish, nostalgic, quasi-psychedelic, and existing in some permanent twilight.

An accessible and intoxicating entry-point into Gendel's ever-expanding catalog.

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