ben c, this is for you
"Few artists in the Lily Tapes & Discs orbit have been as prolific as Jason Calhoun, returning with his first solo release on the label since 2019’s practice. Following 2020’s monolithic pieces of death, a collaboration with Russian sound artist Foresteppe, 'ben c, this is for you' is another long-distance collaboration of sorts, though the distances travelled here are temporal rather than geographical. Written and recorded during a transitional period living at home with family, 'ben c, this is for you' finds Jason reaching far back through layers of dust and memories, pulling remnants of the past back into the present. The result is a densely layered and intensely felt quilt of brief hauntings, punctuated by anxious pangs of remembrance and disarmingly abrasive bursts of emotional clarity. Embracing both the discomfort and catharsis of deep introspection and its inciting factors, 'ben c, this is for you' is a striking new peak from one of our long-time favorites."
mastered by AF Jones www.laminalaudio.com
artwork by Jeremy Ferris jeremyferris.info
released on cassette summer 2022 by Lily Tapes & Discs
lilytapesanddiscs.bandcamp.com/album/ben-c-this-is-for-you
credits
notebook
(text messages, both sent and not)
this is garbage
-you are a genius
i really appreciate your love and support my friend
-you always end our phone calls with “I love you”
-i always feel guilty for never saying it first
am i getting through to you? am i making sense?
this is garbage
-you are a genius
i have complete faith in you
-unshakeable faith?
do anything you want
-this is garbage
you are a genius
i was definitely trying to be overly sentimental
maybe that’s why i’m feeling so sensitive about it
always appreciate your thoughtful listening <3 <3 <3
this is garbage
-you are a genius
also these may be the final masters but my ears are too clogged to listen lol
______________________________________________________________
Jason Calhoun’s ‘notebook’ finds the artist confronting doubt in his own abilities while affirming his unyielding faith in loved ones. Incepted during his first sojourn to a trappist monastery, and recorded in a process that was stretched over a year and a half, the record feels uncharacteristically stark for a Jason Calhoun record. Singular voices seem to protrude out of nowhere, supported by vapor-thin and wistful chords. This is Calhoun at his most romantic and most devastating. His music is a page torn from a diary, thrown out a car window, and picked up off the sidewalk by a stranger who cherishes its brutal honesty and unknowability forever.
-Michael Cormier
released September 3, 2021
sounds by jason calhoun, written and recorded between 2019 and 2021 in ithaca, new york
mastered by a.f. jones
art and design by francis lyons
introduction to an apology
The hallmark of jason calhoun's music--either under his given name or under the naps alias--is an emotional resonance that allows fragility and perseverance to occupy the same space. Though humble in his approach, calhoun has done something quietly extraordinary in building a body of work that, unlike so much music that seeks to transport you elsewhere, instead asks you to check in with yourself. Recent cassette releases have found him pushing composition lengths to 20 or even 30 minutes; for his first LP, introduction to an apology, he has done the opposite, bringing a sense of concision and focus to this collection of pieces, with every moment material.
Those familiar with calhoun's music will recognize the gentle purrs of melody here, the restless hiss of seeking connections, and the evocation of people and places that feels especially meaningful in the context of the pandemic. Some tracks are postcard-like in their brevity and sense of tidings, while others shift the listener into a denser headspace, generously allowing for more sustained reflection. From its yawning opening tones to its final, outstretched moments, this is an album that invites gratitude and grace.
mastered by a f jones
photography by joe librandi-cowan
released by florabelle, april 30th 2021
for vinyl order: https://florabelle.bandcamp.com/album/introduction-to-an-apology
pieces of death
released on two cassettes by lily tapes and discs:
lilytapesanddiscs.bandcamp.com/album/pieces-of-death
"The result of a long-distance collaboration between Jason Calhoun and Egor Klochikhin, aka Foresteppe, Pieces of Death grew out of a collection of field recordings captured in Klochikhin's native Russia, with the expectation that Jason would selectively edit the recordings and use them as a starting point for new compositions. Jason instead chose to use the recordings in full, elevating them from background texture to lead instrument, both musicians now serving as accompanists to the sounds of otherwise unremarkable days. The finished work is one of both broad scope and close attention, an ode to the subtle shifts yielded by life's cycles and repetitions as they phase in and out of one another towards a conclusion, infinite in their combinations but finite in outcomes. As longtime fans of all artists involved, Lily Tapes & Discs is proud to be wrapping up 2020 and welcoming the winter solstice with this masterwork of deep listening.
The thirty-fourth official release from Lily Tapes & Discs. Released in an edition of 2x100 pro-dubbed off-white chrome tapes. Packaged in album-style double case featuring full-color artwork and insert by Catherine Nushtuki, numbered and assembled by hand at LTD Headquarters."
released December 21, 2020
egor klochikhin - field recordings, guitar
jason calhoun - keyboard
catherine nushtuki - artwork
recorded 2013-2020
mixed 2020
released winter solstice 2020 by lily tapes & discs
jedidiah
Conceptually ‘jedidiah’ came from the idea of what determines the length of a piece. Sometimes it may feel arbitrary. Living in this arbitrary sensibility, lengths were determined by the duration of ten separate field recordings. From these, the general length and progression were determined, even if the final result did not even include the original recording at all. When writing I find limitation to be of utmost importance, and this structure felt like a place to begin.
The field recordings were taken on a recent retreat into nature, during a time in my life of great change and unknown. I found myself contemplating the smallness of human age in the context of nature, the joy letting go can bring, and the importance of resisting being swept along by capitalist advancement and destruction. Those close to me have said that this album is perhaps darker than previous works, and they may be correct. Within this sadness, there is still a hope, a sense of gentle wonder for what the future may bring.
released February 14th, 2020
written and recorded by jason calhoun
artwork by ben calhoun
mastered by a f jones at laminal audio
practice
practice is Jason Calhoun's fourth release on Lily Tapes & Discs, and his second of 2019 (following better to give, released this past April by Gertrude Tapes), but the first under his own name. And while there may not be an immediately noticeable change in style or texture from Jason's recent work as naps, there is a deeply felt shift in energy, one that takes root and reveals itself slowly. It is an assured step forward from behind the curtain, an open invitation. practice is as much an album to listen to as a room to inhabit - the details are all right in front of you, but you take them in differently as the world turns, as the light on the wall shifts and fades. Are we speeding up or slowing down? Doesn't matter, they're the same thing.
released September 13, 2019
written and recorded by jason calhoun
artwork by sarah jurkofsky
mastered by a f jones at laminal audio
better to give
Jason Calhoun returns with a new release as naps - this time with a collection of five pieces under the title 'better to give'. These moments are an attempt to not disturb but instead to slow down - even if things must remain out of our control. This letting go is central to these works; a relaxing of muscles tensed for far too long. An attempt has been made to forgo the anxiety sincerity can bring and instead embrace it, even if that sincerity means silence. Slowness does not bring lack of interest, but instead nuance to details we may have missed the first time. The repetition perpetuates its own sense of excitement; remembering that getting lost in it is the only way we can grow out of it. A whirlwind of change feels on the brink of unfolding, or maybe we drove by it unknowingly.
lung cycles/naps split
With this release we bring the latest dispatch from stalwart LTD contributor naps, continuing a recent string of brilliant releases on labels like Patient Sounds and Tandem Tapes. It's a continued development of the warm drones and soothing field recordings that have defined naps' sound, but with a poignant clarity that was only hinted at before now cracked wide open. Lung cycles' response, an improvised pipe organ performance to an empty cathedral recorded live to tape, plunges us back into the murk. Together, both sides speed across the rust belt toward the sunset, but it's not getting any closer. Everything's the same, no matter how much it changes. The world's not ending, it's already over.
i do this for the ocean
Returning to PS after the stunning Checking Out Early in 2016, naps, aka Jason Calhoun, offers a new collection of sine wave whispers. Equally melancholic and peaceful, the sound of naps is signature and consistent, but Calhoun finds new ways to bury his clustered micromelodies and narrative details into listeners’ memories. New surprises -- however microscopic -- await in the simple worlds conjured by Calhoun via synth, electronics, and small sounds. This seems to speak to the magic of this project. Minimal lullabies marked by momentary textural spikes and dazzles, rustling and rummaging ASMR style field recordings and found sounds, and refined melodic flourishes.
as long as i hold my breath
written and recorded over the summer of 2017
bask
"bask," a new work by Philadelphia's naps, plays almost like a companion piece to 2015's "one hundred percent confident" - except this time the deep submersion and murky textures give way to a newfound brightness and clarity. If "confident" was the dive down, here we find ourselves resurfacing. It's sunny out, and there's plenty of shade but fragments of light still break through, shifting and converging as you drift. They're bringing something down with them - but don't worry about what you're looking for, just let it come into focus.
mastered by a.f. jones at laminal audio
artwork by shaun hall
checking out early
Hailing from Philadelphia, naps is one Jason Calhoun. After several stunning releases on other labels, we share a PS debut, and just in time. Sawing branches like a sine wave; cutting between the limbs and letting out small gasps, grabbing the white keys from the counter, passing through the old door frame. These minimal compositions offer solace in the sun coming through the blinds on a sick day while reclining in the respite of a warm chair.
read some thoughts here
happy all the time forever always
Jason Calhoun of Paper Armies returns to Bridgetown with a new set of heartbreaking vignettes for keyboard that pour out volumes of emotion in two minute bursts. Each piece conveys a dreamy, unconscious state akin to getting caught in a rainshower on your walk home from work in a new city and plowing through with your head down only to find something beautiful wash up in the gutter that reminds you of the place you came from. "Happy All The Time Forever Always" captures the multifaceted tug of war between wistful longing, uncertainty, excitement and relief with delicate strokes of smooth and grainy tones scattering down like rays of light from behind a rapidly dissipating cloud, a reminder that there's something good on the other side and that it's not so far away anymore.
ft
“It lacks the cold and calculated purpose of much electronic music, somehow feeling like finding shards of beauty across the radio dial’s no-mans-land in the depths of night, a thousand sources of energy and interference buzzing and glitching into a collage that feels soft and gentle and almost organic. Like a midnight ecosystem that’s invisible to the masses, received serendipitously by late night drivers and insomniacs, an electronic blanket to wrap around their quiet and mundane lives.” - Wake the Deaf
one hundred percent confident
‘one hundred percent confident’ dives headfirst into deep wells of organ drone and tape collage. Familiar characters and memories take shape, distort, and dissipate - when the tape player stops you realize with a jolt that you're right where you were when you pressed play, but everything looks different somehow. Sit still for a little while and take it all in.
