The Sun-Less Trio - Cemetery Road Cassette
The Sun-Less Trio (often a quartet or duo, occasionally a quintet) is a group out of Omaha without an easy category. Their light sounds and satire float like the perfect blue sky. Their dark jazz influenced progressions are often as cold and moody as the films that project behind them. It's a retro-modern approach that often borders 60s/80s. Dynamic, from full blown fuzz to fluffy as a pillow. From "hammer force the peg" to "soft as feathers, soft as wax". From Pipers to Painters. From Karate to Fugazi. *Repeated listens required.
Primarily recorded in 2019. This one was all set to hatch in 2020, only to be pushed back to the black Spring of 2021, only to once again be shoveled to the side like dirt from a ditch. 2022 is the time. *The right time.
Sessions. The sessions were primarily hashed out live, winter of 2018/2019, with miscellaneous add-ons later in the year. Adventures in analog come to mind. Any perceived anomalies are in fact present, tape hiss, wow, flutter, dropouts. Strange panning and phasing. Oh there's some 12AX7 hiss? We meant to pipe in some field recorded rain. Oh the overhead mic cut out? Here's some strange percussion. Oh the tape ran out? We love that blipity blap sound...backwards flipped tape, Q-Sound, mics out on the tiles...multiple listening adventures; cassette, record, CD, download. With any luck one will prove true to your aural preferences. *Listen for it.
Recording Styles and Techniques. Most of your favorite albums from 1966-69 were recorded with 8 track machines, this is no exception. Our sessions are typically the result of recording to tape, 2 track live (desk mix) plus room mics. Next a fold-down reduction would take place. This is where you record 4-5 more tracks of instrumentation, then mix to 2 tracks, to obtain another 6 free tracks of recording. These additional tracks would often contain vastly different instruments remixed along side the initial mix. Not too different from say that late '60s session; squeezing 18-20 instruments onto 8 tracks of tape. For example, “Waiving" might have Bass VI guitar, bass pedal and backing vocals-all on the same track at different points in time. You move the faders, you make it work. Some songs are simply recorded live and mixed with vocals later, others more orchestrated in overdubs. There's certainly no method to the creative process. Still we realize each and every seed of a song stems into it's own complicated and Hobbes-esque-hair pulling life form. You'll perceive tape anomalies, hard faders and 4am mixes. *Not safe for those who cringe at distortion. *Not for those who fall ill to tape hiss. It's not Aja, we make it work.
Architecture. From guitars, pedals, amps, to rotating speaker cabinets...most every sound is custom sculpted (if not completely custom made). Instruments from the 60s & 70s. Maybe a dozen microphones we'd built. The tube mic pre's are vintage '60s reconstructs, the mixing with reworked ’70s channel strips, discreet with passive inducting EQ's. Mix with faders. Yes it sounds better. Ragged '80s tape machines, so what? Cable's capacitance tested and thrown out. Lathe cut records, handmade by Audiogeography, one at a time. CD's: highest available quality Yuden thermal lacquer, slow burn. 32bit float to 16bit (for CD) via recapture (no downsample or dither, it sounds better). Covers inked at Ant. Some things are out of our control but we detail what we can. *Better.
Songsmith. People tell you nothing good happens past twelve. Through the deepest hill and valley curves an arm, waiving like a willow. Imagine. Each and everything is now the sum of all you are told. Imagine. Carry swords to slice apart all dissent within her heart. Imagine. An ocean of filled emotion, lead us back into your arms.
Art. IJS. Such hauntingly beautiful line drawing. An all too overlooked form. Ethereal inspiration in part from Père Lachaise, Paris. Time lost, time kept. The seer of time, overland and oversea.
1. Nothing Good Past 12
2. Cemetery Rd.
3. Waiving My Arms in the Sea
4. (Give It a) Whirl
5. Spanish Caravan/Leyenda
6. Across the River
7. Overland
8. Five Hours
Cricket Kirk bass
Marc Phillips drums
Michael Saklar guitar, vocals, bass pedals, recording engineer
Molly Gaughan vocals 2 & 3
Isabella Saklar Wurlitzer Wurlitzer 720 & 200A keyboards, album art
Track 5 (Abeniz, Densmore, Krieger, Manzarek, Morrison)
Ant-Records 094 Dolby HX-Pro encoded Hi-Bias CrO2 Cassette Tape
Ant-Records 093 Thermal Lacquer Slow Run & Verified Compact Digital Disc
Ant-Records 092 hand made, lathe cut 7" record, 33 & 1/3rd R.P.M.
A: Nothing Good Past 12/Across the River B: Overland
Also available on bandcamp w/bonus live tracks and alternate versions