albinobone
Quiet, delicate songs painted on a small canvas, so you have to lean in close. Intimate and intricate, but allowed to stretch out and breathe. Completely satisfying.
Favorite track: Four Folks.
DerekC
This is an extraordinarily beguiling and beautiful recording - just so original, I cannot think of anything else like it. It is only February, but this will easily be on my best of 2022 discoveries. We may ask, does the world need another solo guitar recording? - yes, it definitely needs this one. I love it.
Classic Black 160-gram vinyl LP (pressed by Smashed Plastic in Chicago) inside a heavyweight reverse-board jacket with insert sheet, IARC obi strip and dome-patterned inner-sleeve.
Back in stock! Shipping from US, UK, & EU.
Includes unlimited streaming of Forfolks
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
ships out within 7 days
Purchasable with gift card
$24USDor more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Shiny compact disc inside a deluxe tip-on gatefold eco sleeve.
*Sold out in US. Ships from EU, & UK*
Includes unlimited streaming of Forfolks
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
ships out within 7 days
Purchasable with gift card
$13USDor more
Streaming + Download
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
$9USD or more
IARC0052 - Cookie & Creme color vinyl LP
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Limited edition 160-gram *Cookie & Creme* color vinyl LP (pressed by Smashed Plastic in Chicago) inside a heavyweight reverse-board jacket with insert sheet, IARC obi strip and dome-patterned inner-sleeve.
SOLD OUT in the US & EU. Remaining quantities ship from the UK. Customers outside the UK will be accurately quoted international shipping rates.
Includes unlimited streaming of Forfolks
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
Sold Out
Jeff Parker - Public Records Poster
Poster/Print + Digital Album
Deluxe 18" x 24" screenprinted poster designed by Goatmother Industrial for Jeff Parker's solo show at Public Records in New York April 15, 2022.
***SHIPPING NOTE*** Ships from US Only. Because the poster requires special packaging, no discounted shipping options are available for combined orders with LPs or CDs.
Includes unlimited streaming of Forfolks
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
Sold Out
IARC0052 Test Pressing
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Original Test Pressing from Smashed Plastic. First pressing.
*Ships from Chicago. All sales final*
Includes unlimited streaming of Forfolks
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Years ago when Jeff and I were in a band together, I always insisted that our records could not have any liner notes. I was enthralled with the idea that imparting any information beyond the music itself was heresy. As if whatever the sound didn't convey needed to be left to the listener. Somehow, I was able to hold this opinion while simultaneously voraciously consuming every record jacket, CD cover, cassette J card and whatever else I could get my hands on regarding any music that interested me. Many years and finally the making of my own album forced me to confront my cognitive dissonance and recognize context can help the audience find their place in the art that they enjoy. That context is especially necessary when the artist is as under-appreciated yet influential as Jeff Parker.
When I met Jeff, he was the first adult (24 years old to my 18) whose musical taste was as broad as mine and my friends. He liked Eric Dolphy, De La Soul, ‘70s Miles, and Donny Hathaway. We first played together in the living room of my parents’ apartment. We agreed to each bring a friend to round out a group. He brought the amazing and criminally under-represented Sara P. Smith on trombone, and I brought my high school band mate Chad Taylor on drums. Chad and I were certainly outclassed that day, but nevertheless we all became fast friends. A few weeks later, at our regular jam session at the Bop Shop, I told my girlfriend (now wife) to pay attention to Jeff. "He's going to be important," I said.
The Chicago that Parker had moved to was ripe with young musicians eager to push at the boundaries. There weren't many venues catering to these new attempts at mixing things up, but slowly a number of great bands coalesced out of a group of like-minded friends, mixing everyone's backgrounds whether punk, disco, jazz or whatever. I clearly remember going to see New Horizons Ensemble at the Hothouse with Jeff, then a few weeks later going to the Empty Bottle to see Tortoise. Within months he'd be in both those bands. He was instrumental in forging a link between players with different styles that helped define the sound of creative music in ‘90s Chicago.
It's a particular thing to hear Jeff play solo. He is an unusually selfless improviser, often times laying out and highlighting the contributions of his band mates. He's never been one to play three notes where none would suffice. On this recording however he is by himself, joined only by his own ideas, looped or frozen, to flesh out the music he's creating in his mind. Hearing him craft entire sound worlds on these eight selections gives us an opportunity to really see how Parker orders sound.
He has been ordering sound with an amazingly diverse array of artists and collaborators for the past three decades. While it's common for a professional musician to be versed in many styles, that normally means a succession of genre tropes deployed to ensure the listener knows exactly where they are and what's supposed to be happening. A guitarist, for example, might play a Nile Rogers type rhythm on Disco or Funk, a favorite B.B. King lick on a blues or a Wes Montgomery phrase over a standard. Parker rarely does anything this overt. While perfectly capable (Once, in the studio, at the behest of a musician we were working with, I heard him take a solo that could have been an outtake from a Steely Dan album), he eschews genre playing and chooses a painterly approach to coloring the music, maintaining a deeply personal voice without weighing down the music with obvious stylistic maneuverings. His unique approach fits so well into so many contexts precisely because SOUND is his main focus and concern. One can clearly hear the breadth of Black Music in Parker’s playing. He is part of a continuum of musicians extending back to antiquity.
The structures here challenge our preconceptions of background and foreground. ALL the layers are primary. We are presented with fully integrated sonic developments rather than accompaniment, melody, or "soloing". Often times a solo album is an excuse for an artist to display their virtuosity. The idea being, possibly, that unencumbered by other musicians, the soloist is free to ride off on flights of fancy. But a career spent in the practice of subtlety is thankfully apparent in every song here. On Forfolks, a standard of the Great American Songbook fits comfortably next to multi-layered improvisations, a Thelonious Monk tune, and several compositions of Parker’s own, dating back twenty-five years.
Monk, I find to be an apt comparison. Both men were deeply involved in some of the most progressive musical movements of their respective generations, neither gaining much renown at the time, but both kept on doing things in their own quietly iconoclastic ways until the world caught up with them some twenty years later. I was fortunate enough to recognize the first time I heard Jeff Parker thirty years ago that I was witnessing something very special.
credits
released December 10, 2021
Jeff Parker - electric guitar
Engineered by Graeme Gibson at Sholo Studio in Altadena, California on June 28th & 29th, 2021.
Mixed by Graeme Gibson in Cypress Park, Los Angeles, California on July 15th & 16th, 2021.
Sequenced by Scott McNiece.
Mastered by David Allen.
Photography by Lee Anne Schmitt.
Liner Notes by Matthew Lux.
Design by Jeremiah Chiu.
International Anthem is a Chicago-born recording company that produces and promotes progressive
media.
Founded in 2014, the IARC label has grown to embody a global community of like-minded artists, musicians, and cultural workers dedicated to craft as a means of discovering truth and celebrating humanity....more
Incredible composure, fantastic drums here and there, great pacing overall, and to top it off an experience that can be heard from the top to the bottom without interruptions. Lovely record and an absolute "trip" of a listen. Fantastic job Nala, you really killed this. 106lil
