“Past, present and future are unfolding at once, and Seltzer is their effervescent score.” – A Closer Listen
Limited cassette / art print, Thrill Jockey Records
Side A of Seltzer, “Time is a Milk Bowl,” documents a live performance inside the clock room of Baltimore’s Bromo Seltzer Tower with projections and animations by artist Zoe Friedman. Seltzer’s B-side collages improvised home recordings into a seamless mixtape-esque composition, drifting through Peals’ earliest rehearsals to more recent sessions.
The recording was released by Thrill Jockey Records as a limited edition cassette and a digital download packaged with an editioned Zoe Friedman papercut.
On performing in the Bromo Seltzer Tower clock room:
“We first visited the clock room on a cold winter night. In the stillness above the city, the darkened space took on the hush of a post-industrial church. We all found ourselves talking in low voices as if out of respect for some giant clockmaker. Unexpectedly, a series of loud pops and bangs broke the quiet, causing the three of us to jump—the large bank of elevator controls had sprung to life as someone called the elevator from one of the lower floors. We realized that the random whirring of the equipment and loud sparking noises were going to be inescapable elements in the room during the performance. Rather than mask the noises of the machinery, we decided to incorporate its sounds into our performance. Attaching a contact mic to the elevator controller, we captured and amplified the random clicks and pops of the machinery, adding to the layer of ambient sounds reverberating through the space.
Our performance included compositions created specifically to accompany Zoe’s projections as well as two adaptations of pieces from our Walking Field album. Because the clock motor hummed in the key of G, we tried to write pieces that would fit harmoniously with this tone. Noises from the elevator controller appear at unexpected-yet-oddly-appropriate times. Shortly before the last movement, you can hear a distant siren echoing from the streets below. This recording documents the first of two performances and was the first time that we had performed these pieces in a live setting.”
— Bruce & William
Credits
Side A: Time is a Milk Bowl. Recorded live by Peals in the Bromo Seltzer Tower clock room, April 19, 2013
Side B: Before and After. Improvisations and experiments recorded live at Bruce’s house between January 2012 and September 2013
Mixed by Jared Paolini at the MickMansion, September 2014. Baltimore, Maryland.
Peals are William Cashion & Bruce Willen.
Music by Peals ©2015 Mellow Curb Music (ASCAP).
Artwork by Zoe Friedman
Performance photos by Sarah Templin.
pealsmusic.com