small ritual

portland vinyl

it finally arrived after what seems like ages but is only about a month.

the cover is abstracted from the photo i took of cloudburst recording a passing freight train in seattle:

that recording is now the basis of his tracks on the EP. side A has a track by mike jedlicka and his remix of cloudburst's track. side B has cloudburst's track and his remix of mike's. all the tracks are the kind of saturated ambient best listened to loud. the sound builds up to intense ringing crescendos and dies away to crackle. mike jedlicka's tracks feature an operatic soprano and a bass played with a bow. it's all good.

i also like the handwriting on the package:

how comic sans should have been. they should get this guy to replace the letters in comic sans one at a time so that nobody notices, but after two years it's turned into a cool font.

portland aerial tram

in portland they call it the aerial tram instead of a cable car, and they call the trams trains. whatever, it makes a pleasant ride with the best views of the city and the mountains - mount st helens to the northeast, mount hood to the east.

portland aerial tram ride from steve collins on Vimeo.

tim tried to record the machinery sounds, but people were talking, so he went into the escape stair to make some noises with the handrails and pipes.

sound recording in the stairwell from steve collins on Vimeo.

at home that evening he began to play with the recordings, adding beats and changing the voices - maybe a new piece of music will result.