Duets

If the majority of “lockdown albums” in 2020 were marked by introspection and solitary effort, Chris Bartels (Blurstem, Elskavon) and Andrew Tasselmyer (Hotel Neon, Gray Acres) took a different path in creating ‘Duets.’
Looking beyond their own four walls for inspiration, they began a dialogue with musical fragments – specifically, a file folder of late night felted piano recordings from Bartels in Minnesota that eventually found their way into the samplers, loopers, and digital tools of Tasselmyer in Pennsylvania. Over several weeks, these ‘Duets’ eventually grew from a set of loose ideas and improvisational concepts into a unified album of seven songs, all made originally from homemade piano recordings but embellished to varying degrees with violin, synthesiser, and voice along the way
Analog mastering from Ian Hawgood preserves the raw, immediate nature of the original home recordings that began the conversation. ‘Duets’ makes its home with the ever popular ‘Book Editions’ series. Vintage books dissected, re-assembled and re-structured into book-bound CD covers…