Dragon Turtle ‘Almanac’ out Nov 10th
Almanac is the incredible new album from the Brooklyn, NY/Pennsylvania duo Brian Lightbody and Tom Asselin. This is the band’s first proper full-length, being released onto the world November 10, 2009 via the La Société Expéditionnaire collective. The recordings began with an M Box and 3 mics in Asselin’s Pocono Mountain basement, and over the course of time, acquisition of gear, and massive trial-and-error, the bunker blossomed into One Forest Studio. An empty roller rink was used as a reverb chamber while sampling Brahms’ Requiem Mass. Musical recruits were brought in to flesh out ideas with distinct instruments that were affected, layered, chopped and collaged together.
Dragon Turtle’s Almanac is a heavy trip; a document of transformation, entropy, and causality. Dragon Turtle evokes Morricone landscapes as if painted by Glenn Branca, where dream atmospheres meet brutal realities of nature and relationships. These forces are both beautiful (“Causality”, “Belt of Venus”) and destructive (“Moon Fallout”, “Burn the Leaves”). The textures and layers move with a sense of urgency and purpose (“Hometime”, “Hourglass”). The duality of Tom Asselin and Brian Lightbody’s musical relationship is also at play, converging an influence of sound spanning from John Cale and Eno to Post-Punk conglomerates of Folk and Krautrock.
Island of Broken Glass takes its name from Robert Smithson’s sculptural work, recanting destruction and violence inherent in the relationships between nature and man. The lyrics from this song also inspired the cover of the album, a spiraling double helix/DNA strand made of burning books.
Almanac will be available on CD, limited pressing of 500 on colored vinyl and digital download.
