Own Records ~ Catalogue

JARED SMITH | Fjall | 07 MAY 2013 | Vinyl + Digital | OWNVIN65

Limited edition 12'' white vinyl. Jared Smith is a musician, photographer, and programmer living in San Francisco. In his third release, Fjall, meaning “mountain” in Icelandic, he provides a stripped down departure from his previous albums. Whether it’s the melodic rapping of a flagpole in front of Hallgrímskirkja church, the hollow clatter of a loose street-tile along Bergstaðastræti, or even the warm, comforting sound of coffee brewing from within flat in Reykjavík, He is able to find the music in the micro and the mundane. Fjall explores the fear that disables enjoyment of beautiful moments, the fear of repeating mistakes, the fear of what a new path will bring.

MELODíA | Saudades | 14 FEB 2013 | Vinyl + Digital | OWNVIN64

Limited edition 12'' vinyl. Saudades is the debut by Melodía, the duo of Federico Durand and Tomoyoshi Date. Fede is a musician who lives in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Born in San Paulo, Brazil, where he lived until the age of three, Tomo currently resides in Tokyo, Japan. They both share a profound passion for music. They both released a solo album on Own Records in 2011 and a few months later (Spring 2012) went to Europe for a common tour where they first met and where they decided to record an album together which was mastered by their friend Stephan Mathieu.

Limited edition 12'' vinyl with bonus track. Both vocally & instrumentally, Some Were Meant For Sea exists in dappled warmness: Hollie Fullbrook’s striking timbre recalling a smooth Jolie Holland & conjuring a similar natural imagery born from earth & sea. Bound by their delicate nature, her songs lay within a space & time all their own: It is a mannered album, one whose traditional arrangements & classic key are gently commanding & reminiscent of folk’s greatest storytellers: She writes with humour and fantasy of cats in hallways, journeys taking flight on moonlight, priests who float into the sky on strings of balloons.

Narrowing Type, the first full length album in Good Night & Good Morning’s five year history, is an exploration of the darker side of nostalgia, texture, and delicacy. Recorded entirely in home studios between Chicago and Milwaukee, Narrowing Type retains GN&GM’s vibraphone and guitar core but uses the addition of drums while detouring into sublime realms of static and noise to leave you with deconstructed yet thickened pop music heard and felt through a haze of fog. Limited 12'' vinyl mastered by Taylor Deupree (12k). RIYL: Grouper, The American Analog Set, Stars of the Lid, Low, Jesu.

‘Charge Group’ - the long-awaited second album from Sydney’s cinematic art-rock antiheroes. The band have spawned a sonic feast of epic proportions that the 2008 acclaimed debut ‘Escaping Mankind’ hinted at, and have proven it’s entirely possible to evoke the chaotic splendour of early Velvets, the kinetic power of Battles and the heady symphonic majesty of Sigur Ros all at once. "Charge Group’s triumph is their ability to marry moments of unbridled beauty with complete sonic chaos at a level scarcely matched." Time Off - RIYL: Deerhunter, The Dirty Three, The Velvet Underground, Fugazi.

willamette compose minimal works for tape, silence, voice and various stringed instrumentation. Romantic music for the old and lackluster, the compositions of willamette are characterized by meticulous notation and uncommon symmetry, emphasizing the importance of space and volume. The classical fugues of their recordings offer a distinctly austere nostalgia, not only capturing the air of an old Delerue record playing in a distant room, but the sound of the room itself. This music was written for the film All the Lines Flow Out by Charles Lim Yi Yong. Limited 10'' vinyl mastered by Taylor Deupree (12k) and cut by Andreas [LUPO] Lubich (Dubplates & Mastering).

Born in San Paulo, Brazil, where he lived until the age of three, Tomoyoshi Date currently resides in Tokyo, Japan where he works as an iER doctor who practices an integrated approach of Eastern and Western medicines. He creates acoustic and organic sounds with a little touch of digital processing producing a very original minimal music that combines the warmth of Brazil with the delicateness of Japan. Otoha was composed on piano, played at night between the period when Date was informed his daughter was expected and the day before her birth. His daughter Otoha's name means “the sound of leaves”.

portfolio | An Artbox

Limited edition (150 copies)

portfolio is an artbox created by our friend Emile. It contains poems, drawings, illustrations & photographs by precious contributors.

Plus a music compilation One Decade of Introspection curated by Own Records.

Whether it was with his band Purr, by experimenting on stage or by turning to a more straight forward folk music in 2006, Mery has never ceased to search. On Les couleurs, les ombres sung mainly in French, Mery deconstructs the code of folk music. Acoustic guitars form the base for other acoustic instruments to build upon while lyrically, Mery filters everyday life’s impulses through the more volatile matter of dreams, creating songs that are modern yet timeless, personal and non-referential, songs that allow the daring listener to penetrate an intimate and singular world. Six tracks that open new doors and demonstrate how far he has come. RIYL: Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, Dominique A, Purr.

The Wounded Beat is an album of dark, moody folk set to a subtle backdrop of ethereal atmospherics. Each track paints a different shade of beautiful melancholy through soft, weighty vocals, layered guitars, keys and hazy electronics. Songwriting duo Kael Smith and Matt Herron spent nearly 3 years sculpting hours of material into 8 cohesive songs that flow seamlessly, and are devoid of any fat or excess. Recorded and mixed by Keith Kenniff of Helios, Goldmund etc., The Wounded Beat is a warm and intimate listen, with the perfect amount of optimism lurking amidst its lonely sounds. RIYL: Bon Iver, Innocence Mission, The Sight Below, Sun Kil Moon.

Federico Durand’s music is a weave of sound searching introspection and delight through simple melodies and field-recordings, made in the heart of Argentina. Federico adores books, autumn and Earl Grey tea. Past releases include “La siesta del ciprés” (The nap of the cypress) on the Japanese label Spekk and “El libro de los árboles mágicos” (The book of magical trees) on Home Normal. “El éxtasis de las flores pequeñas” (The ecstasy of little flowers), his first album for Own Records, evokes a passage with his grandparents to the woods in the Argentinean South, a mystical trip towards the gardens of childhood. RIYL: Vikki Jackman, Hildegard von Bingen, Colleen.

Songs for Boats is an album of love songs at the end of the world. It is a new folk music made to resonate now rather than endure for decades. Written while M. Tolan was living/studying in Spain and the world was sliding into recession, these boat songs came into being as he wondered how he would get home once the world fell apart. This album was recorded at home in Akron, Ohio throughout 2010 with the help of friends whose contributions in the form of varied acoustic instruments, woodwinds and lapsteel create a delicate world within which the songs come alive, sway, and pull themselves along towards humble, hopeful ends. RIYL: Will Oldham, Pullman, Califone, Destroyer.

Interested in the space between subtle songwriting and cascading soundscapes, Chicago-based Good Night & Good Morning aims to balance intimacy, distance, warmth and atmosphere. On record these songs are tracked with delicacy, while live they are presented as an aural/visual performance. RIYL: American Analog Set, Low, Spokane, Grouper, Stars of the Lid.

squares on both sides is the project of Daniel Bürkner, who has been recording silent tones for several years, working on the verge between abstract structures and reduced songwriting. Recorded in a forest house in southern Bavaria, acoustic guitars, pianos, ukuleles and melodicas carry Bürkner’s sedate singing and complex electronics to form songs that actually manage to be close in a very unpretentious way. RIYL: Bill Callahan, Múm, Sylvain Chauveau.

Natureboy is the musical project of Sara Kermanshahi, a first generation American of Iranian descent. A musical collaboration with Cedar Apffel and Rory O’Connor (Masterface). Natureboy weaves loops, waves of guitar, synth, bass, and drums with acoustic folk to create a haunting synthesis of moody and intelligent, melodic and angular music. Her lyrics are both starkly emotional and strangely evocative; drawing the listener into a strange and resonant world that persists long after the music is over. What emerges is gorgeous, vulnerable, and almost threatening. RIYL: Bon Iver, Beach House, Cat Power, Mazzy Star.

Travels, a super-duo featuring Mona Elliott of Victory at Sea and Anar Badalov of Metal Hearts, creates songs that are unmistakably original and inhabit intimate and honest space. Robber on the Run sees them step into an intense, eloquent world of sparse, finger-picked guitars, rattling synths and pianos, interplaying voices and stunning harmonies. The lyrics are collectively surreal, weaving listeners in and out of dreams and mundane realities, and every song is both concise yet monumental, never stretching past the 3-minute mark. RIYL: Victory at Sea, Metal Hearts, Sparklehorse, Low, Yo La Tengo.

S is Jenn Ghetto, co-leader of sorely missed Carissa's Wierd. The songs on her new album are shining with Ghetto's singular ability to write lyrics that are devastating in their honesty and unfettered in their elegance. The issue of relationships, and whether they should be cultivated or abandoned, is the prevailing theme of im not as good at it as you, a smart, artfully-crafted album for all the patiently devoted – and those soon-to-be – fans of S. RIYL: Carissa's Wierd, Elliott Smith, John Frusciante, Lisa Germano, Built To Spill, Grand Archives, Low, Tiny Vipers.

Trouble Books have cultivated another garden lush with colorful and odd sounds, loops, and drones to walk through and explore. Beautiful pop songs blossom from under synthesizer swells and guitar clouds, later to be buried in noise or drift off into ambient atmospherics. A unique, yet warm and welcoming, home-recorded album. RIYL: The Microphones, Broadcast, Brian Eno.

Chihei Hatakeyama is a sound artist and musician living on the outskirts of Tokyo. He polychromes memory-evoking soundscapes with various recorded materials of electric and acoustic instruments such as electric guitars, vibraphone and piano. With releases on Kranky, Room 40, Under the Spire, Hibernate Records, Magic Book Records and Spekk (as Opitope), he has quickly established a solid and unique footing in the emotive ambient music genre. RIYL: Stephan Mathieu, Greg Davis, Lawrence English, Celer.

The Green Kingdom is Michael Cottone, a graphic designer and sound artist based in Michigan. His compositions blur the line between soundscape and structure, utilizing a variety of processed acoustic and electronic sources, sampled textures and field recordings. RIYL: Mountains, Shuttle358, Fenton, The Boats, Sawako, Harold Budd.

Named after the abandoned dance hall in which it was recorded, The Bowery is a breath-taking debut album for Australian musical collective, Firekites. Formed in 2005 by Tim McPhee and Rod Smith, the band has blossomed organically, twirling between half-awake folk and lo-fi electronica. With vocals and guitar provided by McPhee of instrumental architects The Instant, backing vocals offered by Jane Tyrrell of powerful hip-hop act The Herd, and members of Pivot, Charge Group and Josh Pyke's touring band, Firekites are an accomplished group of songwriters who have married lush composition with musical subtlety. RIYL: Nick Drake, Kings of Convenience, Radiohead, Elliott Smith, The National.

In his "Songs for Babes", Mike Tolan has captured the faces of our Great Recession. Talons' might not make much sense in whatever utopia or dystopia awaits our world a decade from now, but the part-time workers, young mothers, and anxious girlfriends in these songs resonate strongly in our nervous & disappointed early 21st century. Janky folk guitars, diverse fumbling instrumentation, ambient sounds and field recordings, crunch-wrapped together under resigned singing from Mr. Tolan himself. Timely and wonderful. RIYL: Will Oldham, Hayden, M. Ward.

Own Records T-Shirt

100% cotton American Apparel "light blue" color shirt with white ink on front.

BOY: 2001 Fine Jersey Short Sleeve T-Shirt available in Men's sizes S, M, L and XL.

GIRL: 4305 Baby Rib Basic Short Sleeve T-Shirt available in Women's sizes S, M and L.

"Their sound exists on a knife edge, balancing perfectly between emotion-fueled freedom and complete fragility. Well-controlled silence, mountain-sized whirling soundscapes and orchestral intermissions." This stunning debut from the Sydney four-piece has won universal praise in their native country for its flowing beauty, ambition and genre-defiance. Put simply, Charge Group play loud dynamic rock music (with an electric guitar, a violin, an electric bass and a set of drums) that can instigate sorrow, health, rapture, rapid eye movement, toothache and intrusive self-assessment all at once. They will light your way home then welcome you at the door with a punch in the guts. RIYL: Dirty Three, Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, Low.

Trouble Books had been releasing limited-edition recordings from their drafty Akron, Ohio living room for several years before sitting down with blank cassettes to collect all of their best ambient, experimental pop ideas onto one album. Recorded during the cold, abbreviated daylight of early winter, “The United Colors of Trouble Books” is all tape warmth, drifting guitar swells, diverse instrumentation, and lopsided loops. RIYL: The Microphones, Yo La Tengo, My Bloody Valentine.

Squares on both sides, project of Munich and Berlin based multi-instrumentalist Daniel Buerkner, arranges silent guitars, pianos, chimes and melodicas to create cautious and intimate compositions. On indication, his third album to date, Buerkner’s singing forms clear superior structures that are fragmented by subtle electronics and field recordings from a temple market in Kyoto. Closeness and reduction, contrasted with playful elements remain the focus of indication, which features guest appearances by Yasuhiko Fukuzono (aka aus). RIYL: Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Nathan Michel, Gastr Del Sol, Mark Hollis, The Books.

180 gr. heavy black 12” vinyl in a beautiful gatefold sleeve

Uzi & Ari have awakened! In contrast to their previous effort, "Headworms" exposes a very lucid and exuberant band with a newfound urgency. I imagine Shepard standing on a chair in the center of a room, encumbered by a large coterie of instruments, dancing wildly, dipping his brush into the palette of sounds that surround him to fashion just the right rhythms and crescendos to color his canvas. RIYL: Radiohead, Múm, Sigur Ros, The National.

TaughtMe's songs are solemn and restless. Vows or confessions are sung amidst a canvas of shifting instrumentation and unexpected sounds. Their 3rd album, "Lady", is more sparse an offering than those prior, with the narrator stepping further into the foreground as the accompaniment weaves or bobs behind him. "Lady" has been said to resemble a children's 'pop-up' book and there is indeed a sense of youthful wonder throughout. But the album does not remain buoyant, and several times it succombs to melancholy and a weariness that begs.

Sleepworks is a lush creation that flows naturally. Guided by Kael Smith’s gently melodic vocals, pop-hooks and poetic lyricism, and supported by the teamwork of keyboardist Matt Herron and the deep undercurrent of Jme White’s multi-instrumentation and inventive production. Sleepworks is exemplified by a strong group of 10 songs including the sweet and lithe “Sister’s Curiosity,” the perfect buoyant pop of “Caldas” and hypnotic layers of “The Living Desert.” R.I.Y.L – The Notwist, Brian Eno, Idaho or The One AM Radio

Double vinyl 2 x 12” in a beautiful gatefold sleeve
+ European tour poster (free until stock lasts)
+ Shipping costs included

On their third full length, Rest, Brooklyn based Gregor Samsa expands on their affinity for minimal, classical instrumentation mixed with manipulated sound and male/female vocals. This album demonstrates a more focused and refined sound, with an emphasis on piano and the integration of new instrumentation such as the clarinet, vibraphone and celeste.

Weird, warm, and captivating, Brooklyn-based trio the Dust Dive returns with Claws of Light, a collection of songs that evoke “a deftly manipulated Americana.” The album was recorded by Jason Loewenstein (Sebadoh, Fiery Furnaces), who was compelled to contribute drums on several tracks. Violin, guitar, piano, acoustic reed organ, musical saw, sampled radios, field recordings, and uncommonly vivid verse soar with gritty equanimity and “mythological twang.” RIYL: Dirty Three, Camper Van Beethoven, Roy Orbison, Bonnie Prince Billy, Ennio Morricone, Radar Brothers, Daniel Johnston.

Over the last five years Worrytrain, living outside of Chicago, has quietly surfaced. From tapping cinematic and experimental fields, to blending genres such as modern classical and noise. The instruments most often heard are mandolin, piano and cello making melodies that are often gentle yet violent. RIYL: Rachel’s, Stars of The Lid, Steve Reich, Arvo Pärt, A Silver Mt. Zion.

Six Twilights' music music is a collection of carefully recorded bits of hushed, delicate male and female vocals, warm acoustic guitars and melancholy piano all rearranged in non-repetative patterns which sometimes resemble songs in the traditional sense and sometimes veer more towards ambient electronic atmospheres. The accompaning DVD is a visual counterpoint to the music: tiny moments of nostalgic, essentialized forms swaying and bending to the warm rushes of sound. RIYL: Fennesz, Sigur Rós, Carissa's Wierd, Marcus Pop, Múm, Hood, RF.

Based in Austin, TX, Bexar Bexar creates instrumental pieces using damaged analog electronics, acoustic guitars, and digital manipulation. With his sophomore release, Tropism, Bexar Bexar, trades the beats and rhythms of Haralambos for dense oceany drones and melancholy guitar melodies. Over multiple listens Tropism's subtle details slowly come to the surface. RIYL: Fennesz, Labradford, Brian Eno, Mountains, Bibio.

Channeling all of the lovely, tinkly, shimmery sounds under the sun, It is Freezing Out features an array of creeping melodies, translucent blips and bleeps and precise arrangements. RIYL: Múm, Sigur Rós, Radiohead, Björk, The Postal Service, Efterklang.

After the release of two stellar EP's, Gregor Samsa delivers their much anticipated debut full length. 55:12 is an eight song journey submerged in dreamy, multi-layered atmospherics. The band blurs the lines of ambient and indie, from heavy and dark one moment to hushed and serene the next, all while angelic guy/girl vocals drift overhead. Mixed by Brian Paulson (Slint, Wilco, Beck).

Their unconventional sound borrows from ill American landscapes, edge-city teenage hangouts, and overgrown, overlooked places. The trio's songs possess the quirky sincerity of a youth recital while burrowing into decidedly mesmerizing, urban pastoral, and ghostly terrain. RIYL: Smog, Palace, Dirty Three, The Velvet Underground.

Talk Like Blood heralds the advent of the new 31Knots. Having released a string of critically acclaimed albums on Michigan-based label 54°40' or Fight!, 31Knots return with arguably their finest and most challenging album to date. Recorded by Jay Pellicci (Erase Errata, Deerhoof) and Scott Solter (Spoon, Okkervil River).

31Knots fuses complex rhythms with jagged guitars for mathematical songs that zig-zag through changes and anxious start-stop riffs, calling to mind Sonic Youth, Modest Mouse, the Ex, and even Fugazi's more challenging work.

Young band from Richmond, Virginia, Gregor Samsa blends the dynamic range of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the melodic subtleties of Slowdive, Low and The Cocteau Twins, and the swirling guitar maelstrom of my Bloody Valentine into a fusion of hushed atmospherics and disorienting noisescapes.