LP / JAMES PLACE — Voices Bloom

VINYL LP + DIGITAL
CATALOG UR099 — Released May 2017
USA

A distillation of cultural memory through electronic process, James Place —the creative guise of New York native Phil Tortoroli, returns with his third release for Umor Rex. The sonic realization of love and loss, re-sculpted for the Post-Modern age, pursuing his glacial take on techno into newly intimate depths. LP limited edition pressed on neon orange colored vinyl, includes a post card with original artwork and free download coupon.

Departing from a line in TS Elliot’s Four Quartets “the moment in and out of time”, its works take form through the haze of a dream. Over the course of several months Tortoroli tracked heaps of live stereo jams at home, jamming on his drum machine, sampler, polysynth, and effects setup. Poring over these hours of hazy jams, Tortoroli heard himself straining for an additional voice to further emote. Rifling through a vast library of old bounces and experiments, Tortoroli rediscovered the music of Sam Sally to complete Voices Bloom, resampled live and again “subdued into explorations of an old practice”.

Voices Bloom is the musicality of cultural collage, immensely personal and intimate, arms stretched out, gathering diverse sonic worlds. The artist and his craft as a self-reflexive lens for an electronic age —a sonic patchwork heard from afar— impressions of memory, drawn close to the heart. Within the album’s cool displaced tones, rise nostalgic romances, drifting rhythmic works which defy the beat. A world where time enters multiple frames, those possible, literal, implied, forgotten, and remembered anew. The final results on Voices Bloom are the most reflective yet from James Place. The hopeful kosmische beats and hauntological synth music on previous albums, and more delicate melodies, riding crisp minimal rhythms that flow elegantly from vignette to vignette. Rhythms of abstract techno with glistening melodic lights.

Produced by Phil Tortoroli. Mastered by John Tejada. Photos and design by Daniel Castrejón.

TRACKLIST / 41 minutes

01 Courage To Ask
02 Robin Weep
03 Move In Blue
04 Rumor and Choir
05 Theatre
06 Echo You
07 Wild Theme Unseen

UMOR REX is a window with a unique vision of experimental music. It's a label worth discovering through your ears, both for electronic music lovers and for those curious to explore new forms of artistic expression.

Founded in 2006 in Mexico City, UMOR REX is an independent record label with a challenging and experimental catalog, in vinyl and cassette formats, spanning from ambient to electronic experimentation, dub, and avant-garde. They release the work of artists constantly exploring new sonic territories, such as Felicia Atkinson, Driftmachine, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Gudrun Gut, Siavash Amini, among many others.