\\NULL|Z0NE// Cassette Release, 2017 - ed. of 50 - SOLD OUT
download comes w/ bonus track
"Hymnal (\NULL|Z0NE//) should serve as a blueprint for what actual hymnals should be striving for. Instead of massive, attention-grabbing theatrics, Sunderlin turns inward where, of course, you take care of what ails you before you take care of what ails others. Hymnal, side A, presents a man in a fractured mood, at once plaintive and, as the track progresses from banjo to sheer atmosphere, hopeful. Reverent. Doesn’t matter why, or to what. That’s between Jacob and Jacob, between you and you.
Side B does much of the same, with processed electric guitar and feedback providing the call to [worship/notworship], harmonics chiming like old New England church bells before passing through a suite of more feedback, acoustic guitar, and sheer tone. Like a benediction.
Jacob Sunderlin provides a place where the heart can be engaged by sound without employing cloying or clichéd tactics. Hymnal proves that congregations or preachers are not prerequisites for spiritual or personal renewal; there’s already a splendid sanctuary right in your own mind." - Ryan Masteller, Tiny Mix Tapes
"a droning endeavor of folk primitivism as processed through the lens of EAI and noise music. The fantastic cover shows a dreamworld of people apparently rising from their graves, their new lives announced by a heavenly horn in the midst of a formless cloud. There is a minimalist, psychedelic quality to this Hymnal, with a never-ending stream of strings in side one, upon which plucked acoustic guitar builds and builds upward until sound juxtapositions of tape hisses and field recordings of a Catholic ceremony take over. The guitar is always the personal, individual constant in the mass of distinct sounds, sometimes distant and muffled, sometimes clear and close, almost always turning a noise into an integral part of a pastoral melody. Side two is just as evocative, letting the string drones lead the way into a bright new life, culminating with a happy folk section that segues right into the drones again, peacefully leaving everything else behind." - David Murrieta, Everyday Experimentalism
"alchemizing his own unique blend of drone folk, a brilliant follow up to last year's (debut?) DEATH RANCH cassette courtesy CASTLE BRAVO that further develops and expands his technique and sonic territory, built on traditional american and old guard new weird american elements, now more closely aligning in both sound and mind with concurrent greats in DOC DUNN, WILLIE LANE and ANDREW WEATHERS, sometimes particularly zeroing in on that sweet spot inhabited by GLOVER/PERREAULT's one-off masterpiece FREIGHT 1110 THROUGH GREENSBORO cassette courtesy WEATHERS' in house imprint FULL SPECTRUM, right alongside ROCK & ROLL CAN & WILL HEAL US - this is avant folk minimalism paying dividends on FLYING SAUCER ATTACK's "rural psychedelia" tagline with fuzzy fringes that creep up and seep in, gloriously shifting toward LOST TRAIL territory one moment, then dissipating and floating away like an extended BIG BLOOD interlude featuring BITTER FICTIONS possessed by the ghost of FAHEY" - PSI Lab
credits
released October 13, 2017
jacob sunderlin - guitar collage & field recordings
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