impr001: Black Tent - Poikylohydry (2018)

There has always been something about this tape. Nearly 15 years later I can still place where lots of the sounds originated. A source tape of bird calls, manipulated through a mistreated Fisher Price handheld cassette player - the same model I had as a kid. A rewired toy housed in a gutted-out briefcase, yelping and barking. A Radio Shack mixer with reverb feeding back on itself. Routing a delay pedal through to a separate stereo channel. And of course, many of these things were decorated with a mess of gloopy spraypaint. I remember sitting in my old apartment, recording it in between shifts at the library amidst a semester off from long-term academic burnout. I still thought I had no idea what I was doing, but it felt a little bit like I was actually writing something as I sketched out notes for myself about what dial to turn and when. I can’t remember how I recorded it, but I think I did it live to a cassette tape, and I remember backing up and starting over. I didn’t have any other way to do it and I certainly didn’t contemplate that I had the luxury of asking anyone else. This was the first thing that felt complete when I released it, that sounded like I wanted it to sound, rather than it being just an improvised disaster. There’s a reason I kept it around, and I think that’s what brings us here now. I don’t know whether to feel proud of it or let it go but I suppose this is an attempt at doing both. If you find something in it worthwhile I suppose that’s all that matters.