Monday, March 15, 2010
Music news Selmanaires' Herb and Jason Harris release digital single, cover Satie
Posted by Chad Radford @ChadRad on Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 3:01 PM
Last week, Jason Harris from the Selmanaires sent out a link to download a digital single, dubbed "'Em Sigh" b/w "Ghede" that he had recorded with his brother Herb, under the name Dean & Leon.
Utilizing unspoken waves of twin telepathy, Jason & Herb shed their first names to conjure rollerskating rinks and a Haitian god, joining forces with a horn section and harnessing the dual powers of destruction/ creation. With guest appearances by Ben Davis (sax/ flute on ‘Em Sigh), Derrick Lee (trumpet on ‘Em Sigh), and Mathis Hunter (percussion on Ghede). Recorded & mixed by Mike Wright, mastered by Colin Leopard...
Stylistically speaking both songs are cut from a cloth of lounge and South American sounds circa '68 share more in common with their latest, Tempo Temporal EP than any of their prior recordings. I asked Jason to tell me a little more about the songs and this is what he had to say.
"It was just a brotherly thing we wanted to do, we wrote about a 30-minute set length of material to open for Atlas Sound and Stereolab last year and we wanted to document it. The song "'Em Sigh" is about the brazilian vocal group Quarteto Em Cy (note the bad pun) who appear on a ton of bossa nova records. Their voices are heavenly. "Ghede" is about the Haitian voodoo god of destruction/ creation who, when people channel him in a trance, manifests himself sitting cross-leggd smoking a cigarette."
While downloading "'Em Sigh" and Ghede" I came across another Selmanaires-related gem -- Jason playing Erik Satie's First Gnossiennes.
Satie's pretty and pre-minimalist take on the avant-garde has always been a personal favorite of mine. It was pleasantly radical for the times (circa 1893), and the soft, rhythmic thud and lo-fi subtleties here give the song a wholly new personality from the myriad other variations on Gnossiennes that already exist. So I asked him to tell me about this one as well...
"That's one of the only classical pieces I know how to play on piano, so I end up playing it all the time! So naturally after awhile the guys picked up on it and we play it every now and then to amuse ourselves. I'm a big fan of his, and the sheet music isn't too intimidating. I'm kind of surprised at how hard recordings by him are to come by. Whenever I see The Piano Music of Erik Satie Vol. One played by Aldo Ciccolini on Angel Records I buy it cause I know if I give it to somebody they will probably like it."
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