Artist: Califone
Album: Echo Mine
Genre: Alternative, Indie
Release Date: 2020
Audio Format:: FLAC (tracks) 24 bit, 44,1 kHz
Duration: 44:23
Total Tracks: 10
Total Size: 450 MB

Tracklist:

01. Califone – Romans (04:30)
02. Califone – Bandicoot (02:55)
03. Califone – Night Gallery / Projector (06:01)
04. Califone – Howard St & the Beach Nov 1988 After 11 (03:36)
05. Califone – Flawed Gtr (01:39)
06. Califone – Echo Mine (06:43)
07. Califone – Carlton says: Find it. It’s still there (02:47)
08. Califone – Snow Angel V1 (04:14)
09. Califone – By the time the starlight reaches our eyes (08:05)
10. Califone – Snow Angel V2 (03:48)

Download:

Echo Mine is Califone’s score to Robyn Mineko Williams’ dance. The movement and the music started together and grew together, like two clear entities. At times totally intertwined and at other times bouncing off one another, sort of like reflections. But, somehow, always connected and listening. Ben Massarella, Brian Deck and I worked in a way that felt like a return to home; Brian handling the engineering, electronics, drums and overall sound of the piece, Ben adding percussion, feel, essential textures and colors. I felt like my job was to hover over all of it like a moth. Find melody in everything. Leave openings for everyone to work at the top of their creativity. We made our album, Roomsound, in much the same way (almost 20 years ago). Three of us in the studio ‘ Be humans. Play together as much as possible. A good feel beats perfection every time. Add other musicians to add other voices and other colors, to do the things we can’t do.Chicago-based experimentalists Califone take a lot more time off between albums than they once did, but maybe someone just needs to ask them politely to write new songs. Not much was heard from Tim Rutili and his collaborators after 2013’s Stitches, but when choreographer Robyn Mineko Williams was blocking out plans for a new dance piece, she invited Rutili to compose original music, and 2020’s Echo Mine is drawn from the material he wrote for it. This isn’t Califone at their very best, but it certainly shows they still have great ideas and can make them work, no matter how long they’ve been on the sidelines. Given that this was written with dancers in mind, it should come as no surprise that several of the tracks on Echo Mine are dominated by percussion, such as “Howard St & the Beach Now After 11” with its mingled organic rhythms and electronic overlays, and “By the Time the Starlight Reaches Our Eyes,” which uses deep drum patterns to anchor a steady flow of guitars, synthesizers, and strings. The opening song, “Romans,” and “Snow Angel V1” remind us Rutili is still capable of writing a straightforward song with the folkie elements that were the hallmark of his early work, but less-linear instrumental compositions make up the bulk of Echo Mine, and the languid but compelling flow of “Night Gallery/Projector,” the ghostly fragments of “Flawed Gtr,” and “Carlton Says: Find It. It’s Still There,” with its ambient, atonal electronics and found vocal passages, explore sounds and space with the daring and vision that were always Califone’s strong suits. And the extended reprise of “Snow Angel” brings the curtain down in rousing form. The wealth of ideas and the solid execution on Echo Mine suggest folks should be encouraging Califone to write new stuff more often, as the results are well worth hearing. – Mark Deming