Taken in Natural Bridges National Monument - music added (by Ryonkt)

Photos by Astrid Kruse Jensen

Astrid Kruse Jensen

Spring mix

for the first day of Spring:

Spring 2012 from nateabels on 8tracks.

Got that on tape

Here it is 2012, and I'm writing about cassette tapes. New music on cassette... who would have thought? In the last couple of years quite a few small tape labels have been springing up - mostly making small editioned tapes in numbers of fifty to one hundred. The appeal of this format is the cost (most I've bought have been around $4-6 with shipping), the fuzz/grain of the tape, and of course probably a little nostalgia. There's also some appeal to having an object rather than just digital files. Personally, I like to bring my little tape player with us camping and on road trips.

I don't think every new album would sound good on tape, but this format is favorable to a lot of the music coming out on cassette. Most of the music I buy on tape is quiet, ambient, drone, field recordings, etc and are well suited to the format. Recently I purchased a couple from Avant Archive - who is selling any of their tapes made prior to this year for half off (making them five bucks with shipping within the US). The Olli Aarni tape is beautiful - I highly recommend it. If you don't have a tape player you can get one at a thrift store for a few dollars- so all together you would have the tape, and the tape player for the price of one LP. If you're not sold on the idea of going back to tapes, Avant Archive offers their albums in digital formats as well (The Olli Aarni album is only $3).

A few other tape labels doing good work that I'd recommend include Bridgetown Records, Wil-ru recording company (who has the awesome Morriconez tape), Sweat Lodge Guru, Hooker Vision, Space Slave Editions, Fadeaway Tapes, Goldtimers tapes, and Mirror Universe (who released the new War on Drugs album with an exclusive b-side).

Paintings by Alexander Tinei

Alexander Tinei, Hair, 2012. 100 x 80 cm. Oil on canvas

Def ace is weeping. 2009. 120 x 100 cm. Oil on canvas (Nick Cave)

and one of Tinei's I saw at the Armory show Friday:

Thomas Hylander

Cellar Door, 2011, Acrylic on Canvas, 40x30cm

Soffit, 2011, Acrylic on Canvas, 35x45 cm

Singing In Your Sleep, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 40.5 x 35.5 cm

Milk, 2006, acrylic on canvas, 45 x 35 cm

Pip of the Core, 2012, Acrylic on Canvas, 60x50 cm (my photo from the Armory show in NY)

other photos from David Risley gallery and Vilma Gold

New Album art for Black Swan

The album art is a combination of my drawing ("Half-Seeing") and a moon/text added by Black Swan. Get a preview of the exceptional new album here:

A few highlights from NY

I spent the weekend at the art fairs in NY - visiting the Armory, Volta, Scope and the Dependent. As with any art fair(s), there is a huge range of work in terms of style, subject matter, quality, etc. The fairs were bustling and everyone you asked had a different opinion about which was best (my favorite was Volta). Overall, it was a great trip. Here are a few highlights:

Friend and fellow SCAD grad, Michael Scoggin's show at Freight and Volume

Alec Soth at Sean Kelly -where I also was able to watch the documentary "Somewhere to Disappear" :



The Soth show was my favorite gallery show - Soth describes it this way; "It's not really about running away, it's about having the desire to run away"

I liked these quiet, dry, semi-abstract paintings in the Norwegian section of the Armory (my favorite section) by Thomas Hylander ( pictured: "Donder", 2012, Acrylic on Canvas 16x20")

Fritjof Nansen by Gisle Harr at No gallery.

There were a lot of photographers in the fairs, but these dream-like painterly photographs by German photographer Stefan Krauth were my favorites- with all kinds of grain/dust/scratches


This painting (left) by Niall McClelland was a memorable one from Scope ("Trash Bulbs 1", 2011; aerosol paint and broken light bulbs on raw canvas; 56 x 40 inches) via Envoy Enterprises

Certainly there was a lot more art than I'm picturing here- I should also probably say that a lot of the great work being shown/made here in Denver easily stood up to what was being exhibited in the art fairs in NY - so you don't have to travel far to see great art. On that note, check out Mindy Bray's current exhibit at Rule!