Exercise caution!

紐約實驗另類怪傑Animal Collective成員首張個人專輯
《Merriweather Post Pavilion》的陰暗面，深層迷離的電氣探索
比【全面啟動】更難解的迂迴夢境，獨一無二的Chillout頻率
觀迎來到紐約布魯克林地底的幽冥世界，裡頭懸浮著鬼魂、三把傘、骷顱、吊床，還有咯咯笑著的象形文字，萬花筒般奇詭而童趣，用突如其來的繽紛，拼貼著柔軟而濕濡的觸感，引人陷入那陌生而親密的混沌狀態。
一張站上Pitchfork、Filter、MOJO、UNCUT、SPIN等頂尖傳媒2009年終榜冠軍的《Merriweather Post Pavilion》，在層次繁複的迷幻噪音聲響中，激發出Beach Boys式的陽光神采，讓人見識到Animal Collective這組天馬行空的實驗大怪物，究竟能把所謂的「流行」推展到何等境地！與去年底的EP《Fall Be Kind》相隔不足半年，Animal Collective成員Avey Tare（aka David Portner）於今年六月投身紐約一座陳舊教堂，錄製了首張個人專輯，邀請隊友Deakin（Josh Dibb）助陣錄音，以 2／3 的Animal Collective組成，帶來了與《Merriweather Post Pavilion》大異其趣的驚異旅程。
以鍾愛的「鱷魚」為創作靈感，《Down There》中的Avey Tare反骨氣質絲毫沒有因為樂隊前作的耀眼光芒衰退，開場便以〈Laughing Hieroglyphic〉變調的電子節拍和著反覆抽動的手風琴，讓人一腳踩進粉紅色的沼澤；沒入其中後，一顆顆令人滿心歡喜的七彩泡沫，隨著〈3 Umbrellas〉活潑人聲堆疊不斷冒出，揚起全作最貼近Animal Collective的片刻。隨後〈Oliver Twist〉短波雜訊和彈跳低音攪和出的泥濘旋律，宛如一次獨步全球的另類舞曲演繹；而〈Ghost Of Books〉一道誠如其名的詭譎迂迴咒文，與〈Cemeteries〉異常平靜的深沉抑鬱，則徹底展現了Avey Tare精神分裂式的邊緣反差媚力。
扭曲的人聲堆砌、水氣飽滿的Bassline與幽微電氣此起彼落，《Down There》跳進了較Animal Collective更黑暗而深邃的異域，是Avey Tare又一回令人目眩神迷的音樂疆域探索，也是最平易近人的一次親密接觸，比【全面啟動】更迷離難解的迂迴深層夢境，打造屬於Avey Tare的Chillout頻率！

Chiming laments for a childhood's end, Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished opens with the phrase "want to hear a secret, I know one", suggesting these secrets just might be buried deep within the flocks of high frequencies, electronic glitches, bleeps and swells that follow. The duo's approach is similar to Love's (circa Forever Changes), with Avey Tare's picked acoustic guitar flowing in perfect syncopation with Panda's tumbling drum kit. But the layers of tonal and atonal electronics that fatten the thinner pulse of the songwriter's vision make this album resemble something closer to modern electronic composition. The songs range from speedy patchwork pieces to slower piano melodies, a somehow coherent yet very fragile brand of psychedelic music - their grasp of pop hooks and dynamics being counterbalanced by a love of noise / friction and musical anarchy; their songs wavering on the tightrope between deeply affecting beauty and unrestrained chaos.



Whilst the band have gone on to rightfully become one of the most name-dropped and influential groups of the past decade, this debut effort reminds us of where they came from and remains a truly stunning and unique album.

The strange, stray birds of the black metal branch fly off into another metamorphosis. ‘Blood Inside’ sees Ulver’s evolution moving on a grand scale. Gaining much experience throughout the five years between their last proper studio album, ‘Perdition City’, and this emergency-room excursion, ‘Blood Inside’ offers more vocals, more variety and infinite interpretations. 9 surgically precise shapeshifts, performed with a wide array of instruments and unorthodox operational techniques. Black sheep? Never. Wolves prey upon sheep.
Written, performed and produced by Ulver, with a little help from legendary producer/mixer/artist Ronan Chris Murphy (King Crimson’s preferred audio pilot). Includes a video clip. All hail the new pope!
If you’re new, come see why this band has been nominated for a Grammy in Norway twice. If you’re a follower, expect a brand new Ulver...again..

In I Am Sitting in a Room, several sentences of recorded speech are simultaneously played back into a room and re-recorded there many times. As the repetitive process continues, those sounds common to the original spoken statement and those implied by the structural dimensions of the room are reinforced. The others are gradually eliminated. The space acts as a filter; the speech is transformed into pure sound. All the recorded segments are spliced together in the order in which they were made and constitute the work.

I Am Sitting in a Room was composed in 1970 and was first performed at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City that same year. A second version was made in 1972 to accompany the dance, Dune, performed by the Viola Farber Dance Company at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Since that time, numerous versions of this composition have been realized in various ways by other musicians, including a Swedish radio broadcast version.

This recording was made by Alvin Lucier on October 29th and 31st, 1980, in the living room of his home in Middletown, CT. The material was recorded on a Nagra tape recorder with an Electro-Voice 635 dynamic microphone and played back on one channel of a Revox A77 tape recorder, Dynaco amplifier and a KLH Model Six loudspeaker. It consists of thirty-two generations of Alvin Lucier's speech and was made expressly for Lovely Music, Ltd.

My second album, released in 2005 on The Leaf Label, in which I totally abandoned sampling other people’s records: I recorded my old trusted classical guitar and my newly-acquired instrument collection (cello, zither, music boxes, ukulele, chimes…) in the living-room of my now slightly bigger flat in Paris, except the glass harmonicon on “The Heart Harmonicon” which was recorded by its owner, John Cavanagh, in Glasgow. I am originally a guitar player and the move from samples back to real music instruments was pivotal, as it seemed to open up infinite possibilities. This was also the first album of mine for which Italian artist Iker Spozio created the artwork – a collaboration that goes on to this day.