full color slim gatefold CD case with extensive notes and photographs.
Includes unlimited streaming of Misfortune (2014 version)
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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LP version (2012)
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
the original version of "Misfortune" released on Isounderscore in 2012. entirely based on the 15-string box harp (an american folk instrument also known as the "lap harp"), every sound on the album was initially created by this box harp and field recordings. The three compositions are ashworth's direct impressions of traditional melodies for the marovany (a box harp instrument from madagascar) and the kora (a west african gourd-harp instrument). the emotional essences of these melodic lines and tunings were severely abstracted and magnified into new realms of emotional and psychological reaction. these recordings of the box-harp were gradually combined with social field recordings and drastically manipulated by several methods of cassette-based looping & delay, speakers and microphones, and using massive underground hospital parking garages as crude, guerrilla echo chambers. the effect is intended to recreate the overwhelming emotional effects of the original melodies, as well as the feelings of anxiety attacks, atheism, agoraphobia, failing health, and observing misfortune in others. recorded by gordon ashworth, mastered by mark burden and gordon ashworth. art and design by brandon nickell. edition of 300 copies printed with teal-foil graph structure tessellations on black matte jackets.
Includes unlimited streaming of Misfortune (2014 version)
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
...more
Misfortune is the final document of Gordon Ashworth's Concern project. The original version was released on LP by Isounderscore in 2012. The Orindal edition of Misfortune is an entirely reconstructed, remixed, and remastered version of the original material, intended as a companion piece and further exploration of themes.
From Brad Rose's review of the vinyl edition of Misfortune, originally published by Experimedia:
"Misfortune is based on the 15-string box harp in that all the music was created using said box harp (as well as field recordings) and the compositions represent Ashworth’s “direct impressions of traditional melodies for the Marovany (a box-harp instrument from Madagascar) and the Kora (a West African gourd-harp instrument).” That’s a lot to get your head around, but truthfully it doesn’t change the fact that Misfortune is a minor masterpiece, no matter where it came from or what inspired it.
"When it comes to droning, electro-acoustic composition it doesn’t get much better. Shimmering string movements swim through silver aural streams like notes borne of the sun. As with most of Concern’s music, there is something innately organic with how these pieces are put together. Warm tones that feel natural, like they’ve always existed somewhere in the Earth waiting for someone to come along and dig them up flicker together until disintegrating into dust.
"Ashworth’s music, especially as Concern and under his own name, is always emotional; it resonates in ways that are at times uncomfortable, but always cleansing. This isn’t music you simply hear - you feel every micro-shift; every fleeting melody; every forlorn layer. As ever, Gordon Ashworth has created something beautiful and bleak and has sent his most memorable project into the darkness as a spectacular beacon of burning light. Highest recommendation."
CD and digital version released by Orindal Records in 2014. LP version released by Isounderscore in 2012.
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