5/12/2009 I and I’s “White Noise/Black Music” released!

One year ago, while checking email in a public library, I received an early draft of I and I’s new record, “White Noise/Black Music” which I immediately downloaded and started playing. (On headphones, of course!). In a word, I was blown away. I had heard early versions of some of the songs months before, and had contributed some guitar parts, but I was not prepared for how much the songs, the production, the overall vision of the record had developed. Fans of previous I and I stuff will recognize the mix of pushing boundaries while nodding to influences, the expansive soundscapes and, above all, Adam’s soulful voice. But despite these similarities, there is something markedly distinct about this album….the evolutionary term “the great leap forward” comes to mind. Same species, but equipped with something hugely different, something that opens up a vast number of new possibilities.

Like most great records, WN/BM manages to sound lush without being overly crowded with instruments and sounds. Where I and I’s 2005 full-length “We Are” was pleasantly hectic and busy at times, Sarmiento has here pared down substantially, giving us laid-back dance grooves, a few essential tone colors per song, and minimalist seasonings that underscore the fact that each part in a composition is both harmonic and rhythmic. This is indeed a ‘dance’ record in some sense, but bears a closer resemblance to those rare great records (Talking Heads’ “Remain in Light” and New Order’s “Power, Corruption, and Lies” are two that come to mind) that make you move, think, feel, and continue humming long after leaving the club. No small feat.

One track from the album is available for free download here, and the rest can be purchased in mp3 format from your preferred online music retailer. For those who still like to have a physical object in their hands, and cd quality tracks for their ears, click the paypal link here to buy the disc directly from the Alchemist collective. Visit www.iandimusic.com for more about the album and Adam's new blog Weekly Noise.

4/7/2009 New e-single and video from Eric Sarmiento available

After working for four years on his 2008/2009 full-length “the declaration of interdependence,” Eric had more than a few ideas for new songs stored up. “At some point in the album making process, I kind of decided I had written everything I was going to write for ‘the declaration,’ and from then on I was just tweaking and reworking the original batch of songs for that record, “ he says. “But during that process of refining the album, tons of new ideas were coming out of the work, as well as the stuff that was going on in my life. I didn’t have time to flesh out the ideas, but most of them I got down in a kind of rough draft, demo form.” As soon as the final mixing and mastering work was done on “the declaration…” Eric started work on exploring the cache of demos he had built up, some of which turned into the two songs on the new internet-only single “Alejandra Told Me/Hypnosis.”

Both of the new songs were influenced by the energetic grit, beauty, and earthy grandeur of Valencia, Spain where they were written. “I loved walking around the labyrinth of tiny streets winding through stone buildings, listening to headphones or the crowds of people hanging out late at night,” Eric tells us. “One night I went to a party that, while not unusually cool or exciting – just full of nice and interesting people talking and listening to good music – somehow became the site of some heavy revelations for me. I went home and wrote ‘Alejandra’ that night.”

The ‘b-side’ of the single, “Hypnosis,” is a quieter affair, delving into spaces of memory, by way of a hazy wash of reverb-laden voices, guitars, harmonium and synths. When pressed for comment on this one, Eric told the following anecdote: “I had breakfast with some friends a while back, and one couple there had just come from somewhere in Arizona, where they entered some kind of nexus of energy, I think they called it a ‘vortex,’ which happened to be occupied by a sauna. The interesting thing is that they couldn’t just go straight to the vortex by going to the sauna, but instead had to walk through a series of spaces in the desert and nearby towns and then go to the sauna before arriving at the vortex.”

…. Whatever that may mean, we’re glad to say that the creative flows set in motion during the finishing stages of “the declaration…” are reportedly still going strong, and Eric plans to release several more e-singles over the coming months. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, the new release can be checked out here, where you’ll also find links to itunes, emusic, and other online retail sites where you can buy the tracks. To see Jeffrey Palmer’s brilliant video for “Alejandra Told Me,” click here.

Finally, speaking of “the declaration…”, you can now purchase downloads of the whole album at a plethora of online retail sites as well. To do so, click here where the record can be listened to for free, and cd copies can be ordered directely from us.

3/1/09 New releases from I and I and Eric Sarmiento; Alchemist releases to be distributed world wide online

The coming weeks will see several big developments for the Alchemist collective. We’re very excited to announce that the finishing touches are now being placed on White Noise/Black Music, the upcoming record from I and I. After his foray into (mostly) instrumental music on I and I’s 2007 EP Music Computer Film, the new record finds Adam Sarmiento putting his expressive and versatile voice to work once again, exploring topics ranging from socioeconomy to cyborgs, from the attractiveness of difference to the challenges and rewards of relationships of all kinds. At the moment, an exact release date is not yet firm, but we can say that the album should be available this spring. We’ll keep you posted on the details as they become clear.

Another new release is on the near horizon as well, an e-single from Eric Sarmiento. Based on the concept of 45 rpm singles of old, with their “a/b sides”, this internet-only release will consist of two new songs – “Alejandra Told Me” and “Hypnosis” – both of which are to be accompanied by videos. Again, we’ll let you know about the exact release date soon.

Finally, we’re embarking on a new project, with French company Believe, to distribute world wide some Alchemist releases to online music retail sites like iTunes, eMusic, Napster, etc. This is an exciting development, as it means that our material will be available and promoted on a wide range of websites. We will continue to offer all new releases for free listening here on this site, as well as some tracks as free downloads. If all goes smoothly, the forthcoming new recordings will be the first to be released to wider internet distribution. It should be an interesting experiment in our ongoing search for an alternative model of music-making and dissemination, one based on the direct relationship between artist and listener.

12/22/08 Australian Expat in Tokyo Overwhelmed by OBAMA Victory

Spiritually American as much as anything else, nurtured by re-runs of the Brady Brunch after school, taken over by countless musical and cinematic obsessions emanating from those shores, my lack of citizenship of that country exists only in the physical realm – in the realm of the senses, my American passport feels as valid to me as the Australian passport which I can actually hold in my hand.

Somewhat paradoxically, this explains my not having actually set one of my bodily feet on United States soil as yet.

The need was not as keenly felt. The challenges artistic, linguistic and practical that awaited in climes as diverse as Kenya, Tunisia, Italy, France and Japan beckoned with a little more intensity, because of the very fact that they didn’t pulsate with the warm familiarity I had grown up with. They cried out to me with their differentness, while America smelled comfortingly like home, almost to the extent that it seemed like a place it was time venture out into the world from, with the result that it suddenly feels implausibly weird not to have been there. A pilgrimage, a homecoming to the inspirational places that were instrumental in my emotional development is well and truly overdue.

More so than ever after the history made on November 04, 2008.

The cultural cringe I sensed around me growing up in Australia and the voices that proclaimed indignation at the sense of being culturally colonised/colonized by American culture were not things I really bought into, even when I started to feel somewhat torn between my Britishness and my Americanness.

At this point, being dislocated from the land of my upbringing and living in a land where the predominant language is not my native one has done much to heighten that Americanness residing within.

The country’s global centrality in multiple domains, both measurable and otherwise is striking, unavoidable. It is the Emerald City to the world’s Oz, from its blockbusterness and dazzling shine all the way down to its shortcomings and tricks with mirrors.

Although not technically a citizen of these United States, I dream of united states to which we can all belong.

And we all took a major step forward on November 04. Humanity, though some of it needed/needs to be dragged kicking and screaming in the direction of tangible, meaningful civilization/civilization did move forward on that day. Neil Armstrong’s “giant leap” was miniscule by comparison.

Truly, I didn’t feel it in my bones that we’d see it in my lifetime, though I dared to dream.

I felt a buzz of hope rekindled for humanity. I could sleep that night for the first time in years soundly, finally given a smidgeon of evidence that evil does not always ultimately win through.

The guy is president! And a heartfelt hallelujah to that! Whatever your religious persuasion, or lack thereof.

The guy we needed, waited for.

He is a human and he is a politician. This leaves lots of room for perfection to be wanting on both counts. But just as the face of evil is being increasingly recognized/recognized as banal, charming, even well-meaning, given that its basis is more often maladjustedness and misguidedness than malevolence, equally can it be said that forces of true righteousness in a mundane reality are seldom angelic or flawless.

Anyway these are quibbles of the intellect. I’m still in the realm of the heart at this point.

Watching and re-watching the acceptance speech and the reactions from Americans and non-Americans worldwide, I was overpowered, unabashedly tearful each time, by an emotion I almost dared not acknowledge, in fear that this might all be a waking dream. I can’t remember a comparable event in my lifetime where the absolute “goodness” of what had happened was this powerful, clear and decisive.

The demons are already emerging, rising stubbornly through the misty, rosy euphoria, but I’m not ready to credit them. I will have to face again the reality of the imperfection of this world, even the imperfections of this man, but refuse to do so just yet.

I need to bathe in the warmth of this promise, rekindled after so long, that the potential is actually there for good to come to the world.

Thank you America. See you soon.

-Jeremy Cox, Tokyo, Japan 11/25/08

10/30/08 This is Interdepen(dance)

This is the voice of interdependence. This voice is global; it is local. This voice is worldly; it is personal. It revels in our interconnectedness and plays with the inconsistencies it throws up. This voice is wise: it knows that longing for a resolution to all this turmoil between us won’t make it so. And this voice also finds beauty in that turmoil.

Here is an album to keep. It’s an album to keep not only because it manages to be explicitly of its time (it wears its 2008ness on its sleeve – while simultaneously dripping with the fragrances of previous decades) but still achieves a timelessness that renders it immune from ever being out of date.

It’s an album to keep because of what it can do for you.

It can lift you up on a Ferris wheel to take a look down at where you live, saying “Get a load of that… Bet you didn’t know!”

It can take you by the hand, saying “Come into the forest… I found something intense I want you to see…”

It can help you put the day behind you, saying, “Hey, that was a rough one, I know… but for now, dig this vibe and let go…”

It can tap into stuff you had without knowing you had, saying “Don’t worry. We all feel that way sometimes. It’s cool.”

What Eric Sarmiento has made for us is an album that does what all the great albums can do: it can be your friend. The connection to us and between us is vital here and it’s essentially in the voice. This voice is warm. And it’s hip. It knows its purpose.

This is the voice of interdependence.

-Jeremy Cox, Tokyo, Japan 10/25/08

site by Lapis