Leaper by Gosheven

∗∗∗ Leaper in The Wire Magazine's Top 50 Albums of 2017 ∗∗∗

On his debut release on Opal Tapes, Gosheven is trying to detach from the substantially distorted and unwholesome male ideal that he has been absorbing since he was born. This record is an important stage of this "caterpillar turning into butterfly" metamorphosis. To match this joyful occasion, instead of the artfully constructed but fundamentally out-of-tune Western tuning, he used - among others - the long time forgotten just intonation (pure tuning) throughout the record. For this, he developed a special electric guitar whose strings can be placed in the stereo field to enrich even more the already unusual sounding of the retuned guitar. By using just intonation and other exotic tunings it was possible to make the whole material more emotional, more intimate and last but not least slower (western music is fast because it is not in tune - rumour says this was told by the legendary La Monte Young). Gosheven also wrote a poem about this personal metamorphosis (in track #2, lyrics below) that is portrayed by a choirboy's retuned and fragile singing over and over again. In the last track though Gosheven sings with his partner, this time in a very special tuning (known as the meantone temperament that was popular in the Renaissance) thanks to the magically demonic autotune effect that completely destroyed and alienated pop music.

Featured tunings: just intonations by Wendy Carlos (#2, #10) and Ben Johnston (#11); La Monte Young's The Well-Tuned Piano tuning (#1, #4); Japanese koto tuning (#7); Banda Linda horns tuning (#9); Pythagorean tuning (#6), Meantone temperament (#12), Just intonation (#3, #5, #8)

I should have become really something
Like a male predator
Full of lucrative lust and firm beliefs
Based on persistency and commitment.

But I have become just the opposite
Strengthening my weakness
Laughing and weeping day by day
To avoid interpreting the so-called facts.

For now I withdraw myself to my mother's womb
To suck my thumb with great care
Settling in the ever-beating
Unfathomable innocence.

Tracklist

1.	Island Of Unknown Joys	4:38

2.	Whisper Of The Valley Breeze	2:00

3.	Descent	1:31

4.	Well Tuned Dreams	3:46

5.	Levitation	1:01

6.	Memory Failure	3:55

7.	Excluded And Abused	3:21

8.	Ascent	1:00

9.	The Bad Spirit (Who Made Me Do It)	2:28

10.	Sublime Fragility	4:47

11.	Waves Of Innocence	4:43

12.	Unbalanced Holiness	1:03

Credits

released May 5, 2017

Special thanks to: Rebeka Rácz, Krisztián Kristóf, Márton Kristóf, Márk Bartha, Martin Mikolai, Ábris Gryllus, UH Fest, Gábor Lázár, Ata Ebtekar (Sote), Oren Ambarchi, Stephen Bishop

Cover photo: Rebeka Rácz

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