Slow Machines, by Michael Grigoni & Stephen Vitiello

Slow Machines

by Michael Grigoni & Stephen Vitiello

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Eric Gedenk Some of my favorite 12k yet. The guitar work makes it much more active than many ambient albums, but still squarely belongs in the genre by spirit and sound.

Lost Tribe Sound I've spent a good amount of time trying to think of something clever to say about 'Slow Machines,' and come to the conclusion that bright, melancholic, patient, and rewarding meanderings such as this don't require my wit. Hard to tell where Grigoni's and Vitiello's contributions meet, the sign of a great collab. I'll say this, Mick Turner (Dirty Three) is one of my favorite guitarists, because of his seemingly lazy off-kilter sense of timing and MG is quickly becoming a fav for similar reasons.

robinrimbaud An otherworldly album, bringing up memories of Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno in a softly furnished studio. Just beautiful!

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1.	Arthur Ganson 12:56	buy track
2.	Sheridan, WY 08:26	buy track
3.	Purpling Cloud 06:20	buy track
4.	A Clearing 08:03	buy track
5.	Transparent As A Hanging Glass 07:05	buy track

about

Slow Machines brings together veteran Stephen Vitiello and 12k newcomer Michael Grigoni, whose debut Mount Carmel (12k1090, 2019) made an impression for its merging of the pedal and lap steel guitars with a hushed, ambient sound. With both calling the southern mid-Atlantic region of the United States home, the two met up and discussed a collaboration in which Grigoni would provide the guitars and Stephen the electronics and processing with a goal of combining each of their artistic languages into a new form.

Vitiello, whose work is steeped heavily in the installation and art world, utilized both his trademark field recordings as well as recordings from the oddly whimsical kinetic sculptures of artist Arthur Ganson. The clicking and rattling sounds of these sculptures were the inspiration for the album title as the metal forms whirl and whir in repetitive motion like slow machines. A feather on one of Ganson’s pieces softly touches the string of a violin and recordings from Vitiello’s fieldwork in Sheridan, Wyoming provide a tactile sense of place as the duo creates a series of new sonic machines that morph and evolve over the bending, lulling tones of the steel guitars.

credits

released February 7, 2020

Michael Grigoni: dobro, lap steel guitar, pedal steel guitar, and voice
Stephen Vitiello: digital and analog sampling, field recordings, Ebow guitar

Additional instrumentation on track 5 by Taylor Deupree: Moog bass, Hohner Pianet-T

Recorded and mixed at the homes of Michael Grigoni in Durham, North Carolina and Stephen Vitiello in Richmond, Virginia in 2018

Final mix and mastering by Taylor Deupree at 12k

Published by EMSI Music (ASCAP) and Stephen Vitiello (BMI)

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12k New York, New York

12k is a New York based experimental music label run by artist Taylor Deupree that has decisively defined and developed its own concept of minimalism in the realms of experimental and ambient music since 1997.

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