GROUPER "Way Their Crept" --- CONTACT

Hoping for a new album this year.

🙏🙏🙏

btw

The Sound They Make At Night - GROUPER - AIA Dream Loss, Alien Observer POLL

Every time I see this thread pop up I pray that it's new Grouper music getting announced. Ruins was all the way back in 2014!

this all fits in my with my theory that everything that is good has been frozen in time (see stars of the lid)

Didn't she say something at one point about being finished with the Grouper project? (Though before last year's seven inch, I think)

It was in one magazine interview that I heard more talk about than the interview or even quote itself... but I do remember reading the exact quote. It wasn't entirely clear and was probably taken out of context and blown out of proportion and the whole "she's retiring Grouper" bit went thru a game of telephone. having said that, yeah, since 2014 she's only put out 3 songs: the Paradise Valley 7" (recorded in 2012), and "Children," an outtake from Ruins (recorded in 2011). So we haven't even heard anything recorded past 2012.

What year was Helen?

single in 2012, album in 2015. but Helen isn't Grouper.

(gets off ass and Googles it)
right of course flappy, but it might count as "done with Grouper" - so the album came out in 2015 and was recorded across "several years" prior, thus I guess Helen is the most recent Liz Harris work out there?

i'm optimistic she'll come out with something pretty soon. she's played several shows since last june, so it's not like she isn't active

do you all know about Hypnosis Display, from 2014? it barely rung a bell, but it's mentioned on her CV (http://www.repeatingpattern.com/cv.html):

Music Commission- Commissioned by Leeds Opera North to collaborate with film-maker Paul Clipson on a 75 minute film and soundtrack entitled Hypnosis Display to be performed live this Summer in the UK.

the only mention in this thread is by schlump, but here's some quick stuff i tracked down (ie the top 2 google results):

11 minute excerpt: https://vimeo.com/109943175
https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2015/04/07/interview-grouper-and-paul-clipson-discuss-hypnosis-display/

somehow i just totally missed all of that, whenever it happened

this is her mural in portland:

https://i.imgur.com/c15q8X9.jpg

hey i know where that is! i pass it fairly often and never knew it was harris' work, thanks karl!

Oooh I thought Hypnosis Display was in 2012. I got it mixed up with Violet Replacement.

xxp man that is cool, thanks

New album in late April, Grid of Points. Enjoy a song from same:

https://soundcloud.com/kranky/grouper-parking-lot/s-1V3kb

At last.

x-post to ned - posted within 15 minutes of that track being uploaded - damn you're quick

the piano sounds wonderful

I keep an eye on things

Gorgeous. Wonder if this is another piano centric album.

From the promo guff, Liz herself:

Grid Of Points is a set of songs for piano and voice. I wrote these songs over a week and a half; they stopped abruptly when I was interrupted by a high fever. Though brief, it is complete. The intimacy and abbreviation of this music allude to an essence that the songs lyrics speak more directly of. The space left after matter has departed, a stage after the characters have gone, the hollow of some central column, missing.

I love Ruins so I'm not complaining

Not long after recording her 10th album, Ruins, Liz Harris traveled to Wyoming to work on art and record music. She found herself drawn towards the pairing of skeletal piano phrasing with spare, rich bursts of vocal harmony. A series of stark songs emerged, minimal and vulnerable, woven with emotive silences. Inspired by "the idea that something is missing or cold," the pieces float and fade like vignettes, implying as much as they reveal. She describes them as "small texts hanging in space," impressions of mortality, melody, and the unseen – fleeting beauty, interrupted. Grid Of Points stands as a concise and potently poetic addition to the Grouper catalog.

from Liz Harris:
Grid Of Points is a set of songs for piano and voice. I wrote these songs over a week and a half; they stopped abruptly when I was interrupted by a high fever. Though brief, it is complete. The intimacy and abbreviation of this music allude to an essence that the songs lyrics speak more directly of. The space left after matter has departed, a stage after the characters have gone, the hollow of some central column, missing.

Now I did post the second half of that. :-D

Ha, sorry Ned, don’t know how I missed that. I’m waiting til I get home tonight to pre-order. Hopefully it’s not a 500 copy limited edition that’s already sold out

The special edition is already sold out

I discreetly hope that one day Grouper does a faceplant and releases a real turd and all of us are shaking our fists at the $30 trash we all pre-ordered

So this was recorded years ago too? "Not long after recording Ruins"... 2011? 2012?

I've listened to the song once & need to listen again but first impression: the chord progression is really similar to something on Ruins (either Call Across Rooms or the outtake released last year Children), and the vocals are much clearer and sit really high in the mix.

Very excited though

I don't care for the new song! still excited tho

mt eerie's last LP aside, ruins is the most devastating record of the past decade or however long... wasnt expecting more piano work. im so ready to get blue again.

me too. but i'm disappointed this song is so similar to 'Call Across Rooms' and 'Children.' the idea of Grouper treading water musically makes me.... very anxious

There is something very predictable about the way it moves melodically, but haven't taken the time to compare it to previous tracks. Wasn't sure if it was just me.

no it's not, i've seen the same comments elsewhere. when i first played it i immediately recognized the chord progression from Call Across Rooms, and last night, compared the major key change to Children and yeah, it's like a mashup of those two songs.

and again if the press release is accurate and doesn't confuse the recording of Ruins (2011) and its release (2014), then this album is at least 5 years old.

the idea of Grouper treading water

thing is, this latest release was recorded just after ruins (so late 2011/early 2012 i guess?), so this is the sound of her reaching us 6 years later.

just for fun, if she recorded this 6 years ago, way off in space, and it traveled at the speed of sound toward us and we're just now hearing it, then she was 64,901,088 km, or 40,327,666 miles away.

xposts

Right, which is not an issue itself- Ruins was 3+ years old when we heard it and it's amazing. What I'm saying is that this sounds like an outtake or B-side, that because the album was recorded so shortly after Ruins, and with the same setup, it could be an album of exhausted material... tho she wrote & recorded it after Ruins, it's following similar & already traveled melodic paths. I loved Children when she put it out last year, but I can't connect to this song because it's so glaringly similar to two Ruins era songs.

we'll have to wait and see i guess. i had similar fears about The Man Who Died In His Boat, because i thought it would just be a lesser version of Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill. which...actually, i'd say it technically is, but slightly, and i love both of them. hopefully grid of points will be similarly rewarding despite the outtakes/b-sides danger

good point about The Man Who Died in His Boat, again it's the difference between good b-sides that have similar sonic palettes and b-sides that are made up of previously used melodies and harmonies. i mean listening to this new song, it's like trying to access a burnt out circuit. sure you could put "vital" or "living room" (maybe) on DDD, but they're not melodically similar to anything on that record.

That just seems to be her process of the last decade or so, doesn't it? She records something and lets it sit for many years before she decides to release it.

I have a friend who is a photographer who works similarly. He shoots and shoots, but he lets a year or more go by before he actually develops the film. I think it puts a distance between him and his work that helps him see it more clearly. I wonder if it's something similar for Harris.

while this is bumped, has anyone heard the Raum album? I mean, it might be on streaming, but I'm curious

I haven't listened to the Raum album in awhile but I remember liking it a lot. I discovered Jefre Cantu-Ledesma because of it. He's great too!

That just seems to be her process of the last decade or so, doesn't it? She records something and lets it sit for many years before she decides to release it.

I have a friend who is a photographer who works similarly. He shoots and shoots, but he lets a year or more go by before he actually develops the film. I think it puts a distance between him and his work that helps him see it more clearly. I wonder if it's something similar for Harris.

And it’s not similar in the same way DDD or A|A blend together- it’s specific chord sequences and melodies from other songs.

this new song sucked the air out of my lungs.

I really only know Ruins. Does she have a consensus "this is the one you need to hear" album, or is she one of those "they're all pretty good" kind of artists?

There are many times you'll see artists explore a theme, with small variations on the same idea. She's not a pop or rock artist so we probably don't have to hold her to those standards. Her music is more fit for a gallery, a place where you might see examples of this a lot. Nobody ought to be giving Barnett Newman too much shit for having done essentially the same thing over and over.

xp

Fellow Evan please check out Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill. If you're anything like me, it's because we have the same name (but also you'll love it).

the only dud is the Wide album imo, everything else is worthwhile but DDD and AIA/Alien Observer are my personal faves

Are you the same Evan who also voted for the same top Los Campesinos! song in that feature about the band last year? If so, then were are indeed very, very (almost eerily) alike.

But I'll check out Dragging a Dead Deer either way, thanks!