Rules & Chance by Golden Hallway Music

"Named for a poetic fragment by the late David Berman (“If Christ had died in a hallway we might pray in hallways/ or wear little golden hallways around our necks”), Golden Hallway Music is the moniker under which Zack Tornaben records whimsical, wondrous daydream miniatures in the hallway of his New York apartment. Rules & Chance is his second self-released collection, and its songs triangulate kosmische circus themes, pastoral new age, and African keyboard modalities, creating a humble fantasia of open-horizon melodies and electric sunset textures, all of them inspired by moments of quotidian beauty: highway rest stops, light pollution, city rooftops at night. It’s a quiet gem, full of meditative moods and minimalist means, pulled from the mouth of the metropolis into beatific spheres above."

Britt Brown, Not Not Fun Records
Bandcamp Essential Releases, August 2020

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"What is Golden Hallway Music? It's the sound of pause. It's an ode at the sound of the tone. It's not getting used to the clouds. It's the preferred rest area of the land travel advocacy agency. Making the smallest promise and the subtlest hint. Intuiting a sequel. Searching for synonyms for daydream nation. Walk as far as you can and back. When life gives you lemons, contemplate the lemon."

Instruments used:
Ace Tone Top-1 Electric Organ, 2 Revox A77 Tape Machines, Keio Mini Pops Junior Drum Machine, Behringer Pro-1 Tabletop Synthesizer, Roland EP-09 Electric Piano, Mu-Tron Volume-Wah, Holy Grail Reverb, PB&J Delay

Please be forgiving of the occasional noise, this music was recorded in my hallway :)

Z. Standard Time
NYC 2020

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"Idea Land" (Video):
https://youtu.be/Hj2dR1j3prw

Zack Tornaben /
Shack T /
Z. Standard Time