“On one particularly cold and rainy winter day, tired and a bit down, I sat on my studio floor and surrounded myself with a pile of small instruments, my acoustic guitar, and my looping pedals. Pixel, one of my cats, was sleeping next to me as I began to create a warm bed of drones and small noises in an attempt to warm the room and my spirits.
As fate would have it, during the very same day, I had laid out all of the steps before me needed to finally bring 12k into the world of vinyl, lining up manufacturers, printers, and design ideas. It seemed perhaps more than coincidence, then, that I had actually been sitting down to write what would become the two short pieces on this 7”. It only took a look at the weather outside the window and then at a dusty piece of vinyl still sitting on the turntable since autumn for me to know immediately the title and feel of these pieces.
Created in a short number of days, “Weather” and “Worn” actually mark the first recordings I have done solely with acoustic instruments and a minimum of effect processing. Although not entirely planned, these two pieces are quite fittingly warm and a bit noisy, scratchy and tactile. Each track is based around a drone and then extended by further explorations around the same note. There is a stillness and feeling of tension which then give way to clarity. When the work is played loudly, it becomes ever-present, yet is gentle and calm when played softly. There is a sense of struggle between the weather and my mood, between the technology and imperfection…and only a run-out groove in the vinyl to keep these pieces from fading to complete silence.
During the cutting of “Worn” I realized that the 45 RPM record sounded beautifully hazy and languid on 33, so I set out to create an extended version of the track for the digital only release. Inspired by my Stil. album, I looped a portion of “Worn”, transposed the pitch and speed to match a 33-rpm record and let it run for 23 minutes. This cannot fit on a side of 7″ vinyl, so it became a digital-only track. 23 minutes is an arbitrary length… really it could run on for hours.”
Taylor Deupree
March 2nd, 2009
Weather & Worn launches the first in an ongoing series of 7” releases by 12k. Each will be packaged in a recycled chipboard jacket and printed with a minimum of plant-based inks. The clear 7” vinyl is protected by a matte-black sleeve embossed with a small 12k logo.