Carillon by NAHZEN

Rehearsal tapes, performed/recorded live-to-stereo HIFI VHS tape. Played manually, with no sequencing, Using analog devices from the 1970s. The two things I'm most proud of with this album are that my son (in middle school at the time) played some trumpet on one of the songs (Hear Ye) which is very simple but is the hook, and that my wife took the amazing photo of the album cover building, which is just perfect and makes me want to stare at it thinking how well it makes the vibe.

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This album is dedicated to the memory of my cousin Max Newkirk, who suddenly died in Sept. of this year (2023), in his early 30s. He was a brilliant visual and musical artist, and one of the sweetest guys you could know. We used to communicate more, but were down to once a year or so more recently. The weekend that i had set aside to organize and prepare these tracks, i was thinking of him, as he was into this genre. Thought i'd send him a link to preview the album after i finished. But very sadly, he was discovered passed away the following Monday morning. In the process of editing one of the tracks, i accidentally slowed it down to half speed. It sounded great and knowing he was a huge fan of the Vaporwave genre, decided to add it to the album as the last track Carillon and On (for Max). I think he would have loved it.

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Never intended to release these recordings (made between 2016-2018), as they were purely for reference purpose. After working up the composition of a song (usually around 2 or 3am) I'd do a couple passes through it, recording live-to-stereo Hi-FI VHS tape, until one was decent enough to keep. With the thinking that i would wake up in the morning completely forgetting what I'd done and this would remind me, which was usually the case. These were in my opinion, loose, sloppy and in need of editing/being properly recorded for release, more or less. Made 3 albums worth of these that i burned to 2 CDs to listen to in the car a few years ago. In hindsight, am glad i did this.

Life stepped in in 2018, where we had our 3rd child and my side business received a big bump. No time for proper tracking of a new album, but still maintained monthly live performances. When covid/lockdown happened in early 2020, i assumed my business would go under and I'd have lots of time to finally record and album of this material. Quite the opposite, within a couple months i effectively became over 2 years back logged with orders. This carries on to this date of writing in 2023. Recently realized that i'm not getting any younger and the opportunity to track these songs is not a reality in the foreseeable future. Decided to collect the most cohesive of the 3 albums worth of reference material into one album to digitally release on my 50th birthday (12/9/23). For better or worse..

If things calm down with my business in 2024, then the plan is to do a release of it on 8 track, reel and perhaps other formats. Hope this can happen! But for now..

been around awhile....to no avail.

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