Post Moves
GROUND ECHO DUST
About
I was turned on to Sam Wenc’s music only recently. Brad Rose of Foxy Digitalis had been impressed by some recent works and Sam’s hustle with his own label. Brad was correct that I was very much into what Sam was cooking up under this guise of Post Moves. To be reductive it felt like a deeply American counterpoint to the works of the Necks, various VHF bands or the run that Oren Ambarchi has been on. Said another way, exactly where Debacle wants to be. When Sam reached out to me about this new one I was instantly on board. It was even more than I could have hoped for.
A spinning whirling trip informed by Cosmic Jazz, Modern Composition and broken Americana. Sometimes the pieces are freed from gravity allowed to float and figure and others nailed down by a psychedelic propulsion aimed firmly at the vanishing point.
I couldn’t be more excited to release this into the world.
-Sam (Melancon)
Sam Wenc on the album
“The creation of these two tracks here are somewhat diametrically opposed. Though the end result reflects a sort of symmetry, both side length pieces, both anchored by propulsive percussion and a certain commitment to forward momentum, they were made in very different conditions and spaces of time.
"Harbor Ripple Blue" was mostly written and recorded during a one-week residency in March 2022 at Electronmusikstudio in Stockholm. I traveled there with just a small bag of percussive objects, a small drum machine, and a couple transducers. When I arrived at the apartment I was staying at, a brief walk from the studio, I met the Airbnb host who showed me a beautiful nordic dulcimer (that i forget the name of) he kept under the bed. After a few days in the studio, I had the shape of the piece and I decided to bring out the dulcimer, which gave it its final form.
I felt somewhat silly at EMS, because it's a space with these beautiful, vintage modular synths. I plunked around some on them, but mostly focused on the small assemblage of materials I had with me. One of the exciting processes I implemented was running the drum machine through the transducers into these 8" cymbals and then dragging different metal pipes across the surface of the cymbals, which created a sort of analog filtering effect.
My time there was spent walking slowly around a late winter Stockholm, snow squalls and blasts of sun, melting harbor ice, seeing Lucy Railton perform Olivier Messien in a church. Upon my return, with the piece mostly done on my part, I brought in two friends to contribute parts. Julian Morris (who writes songs as Layperson) contributed vocals and Ben Varian (who writes songs as Ben Varian) on drums. I love bringing songwriters into different environments and hearing how they both tighten it all up as well as slacken their approach and keep things open and spacious.
"Dark Air Quiet" has a much different trajectory. This piece went through so many iterations I've lost count. I was ready to scrap it quite honestly before bringing in Rye Warner (who once wrote songs as Ohioan, now as Natural Lite) to contribute vocals and Ben again on drums. The first iteration was recorded early in 2021 and it wasn't until after I had done "Harbor Ripple Blue" that I decided to give the track one more shot. Whatever happened to it, it stuck and I feel glad I rescued it from the scrapyard.
The album in sum, for me, is very tied to these two paths each track took towards existence. A tremendous amount of life can occur within a two year period just as it can within a one week period. It helps me believe even more so in this path of making music as a true life practice. I don't get to decide when and how something comes together. I just have to be trusting that I will be guided towards (or away) from the sounds in the time that they deem fit. The title of the album, "Ground Echo Dust" reflects such a perspective - we sense echoes both distant and near. We are drawn to the source just as we can be pushed away from it. An eternal rattling, a constant rippling. “
Release Date
May 24th, 2024Formats
Vinyl / DigitalTracklist
Harbor Ripple Blue (15:24)Julian Morris - VocalsBen Varian - DrumsDark Air Quiet (14:57)Rye Warner - VocalsBen Varian - Drums
Mixed by Sam WencMastered by Andrew Weathers