Everything Is Simple

by Zelienople

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Kawka Absolutely brilliant, nothing more to say

dronesareprettycool zelienople changes the game after 4 years with this absolutely wonderful album. heavy blues vibes on this one, and such an awesome listen, slowly becoming one of my favorites. can't wait for more to come from these amazing pioneers of drone-based jazz. Favorite track: Orange Capsule.

Harrison Phinney essence of blues wrung thru cheesecloth—milky sehnsucht. drowsy yet sultry, like a road trip thru the Mississippi summer with no company save the ghost of an ex lover in the passenger seat. a real stunner of a record! essential for fans of CS + Kreme

tr mp uz Today I received the album and I can only say that it is excellent.
What wonderful themes.
Great Zelienople

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
• Black vinyl
• Heavyweight printed inner and outer sleeves
• Photographs by Mike Weis
• Mastered by Simon Scott and cut at Schnittstelle
• Shipped in impact-buffer edges mailer

Includes unlimited streaming of Everything Is Simple via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.

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	1.	Holy Rollers 06:29
	2.	Hold In My Hands 04:18
	3.	In This Town Again 05:01
	4.	Wishing Wells 05:32
	5.	Santa Chiara 02:58
	6.	Orange Capsule 06:38
	7.	Everything Is Simple 06:13
	8.	Make The Whole Town Decay 05:37

about

Everything Is Simple arrives four years after its predecessor, Hold You Up, which in turn came five years after Show Us The Fire. Zelienople does not do things in a hurry. Why should it? Operationally and musically, haste has nothing to offer the Chicago-identified trio. They do not rush their time signatures, and they do not rush their albums, because however long it takes is the amount of time necessary.

So, what’s necessary? Singer-guitarist Matt Christensen, multi-instrumentalist Brian Harding, and drummer Mike Weis had all been in other bands before they united to become Zelienople in 1998 (the band’s name references a town in Pennsylvania where Harding and Christensen were once stranded while waiting for parts necessary to fix a broken-down car). All of them have all played other music since then. Harding records long-form instrumental music under the guise Ill Professor. Weis has explored ambient sound, studied Korean rhythmic practices, and improvised with Kwaidan and Slow Bell Trio. Christensen is torrentially productive on his own; at the end of April 2024 he had 212 digital releases on Bandcamp, and by the time you read this, there’ll be more. If Christensen is driven by compulsive necessity, Zelienople’s rate of production must be a spoiler, not an enhancer. But the three musicians need each other to make the convergence of ceremonial cadences, echo-laden instrumentation, and mournfully resigned singing that constitutes Zelienople’s music.

Still, the making of Everything Is Simple took Zelienople out of its comfort zone. In 2020, Weis left Chicago for Kalamazoo, Michigan, which meant that the band no longer had access to its usual recording refuge in his basement. They turned loss into an opportunity to change their approach. Instead of layering tracks incrementally, they recorded mostly live with two extra musicians, Eric Eleazer (synthesizer, Fender Rhodes piano) and PM Tummala (synthesizer, Fender Rhodes piano, vibraphones). Keyboards and metallophones broaden the sound field around Weis’ patiently perambulating percussion. And instead of clinging, Harding’s basses and clarinets swirl and wreath around Christensen’s apprehensive articulations of the experience of being a quiet person in a menacingly loud cultural moment. Tummala also contributed his engineering skills, which enabled Christensen to step back from recording duties to concentrate on singing and playing, and his studio, which is much more spacious than Weis’ old basement. While the basic tracks went down quickly, a lengthy period of mixing and fixing ensued, followed by the spatially conscious mastering of Slowdive’s Simon Scott, all of which further magnified the effect of being a bigger band in a bigger space. Still, Zelienople wears its expansiveness lightly; Everything Is Simple may loom sonically, but it doesn’t overwhelm the listener so much as give them the space to inhabit a singular realm.

credits

released July 19, 2024

Recorded by P.M. Tummala
Mixed by Matt Christensen
Mastered by Simon Scott, SPS Audio Mastering

Matt Christensen - vocals, guitar
Brian Harding - upright & electric bass, b flat and bass clarinets, guitar
Mike Weis - percussion
P.M. Tummala - vibraphone, Fender Rhodes, synthesizers
Eric Eleazer - synthesizers, Fender Rhodes

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about

Zelienople Chicago, Illinois

Zelienople is Matt Christensen, Brian Harding and Mike Weis. Contact us at [email protected].

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