Public Speaking - Blanton Ravine
SKU
Fabrica 027
"Public Speaking is the solo moniker of Brooklyn experimental musician Jason Anthony Harris. Utilizing found objects, radio, tape recorder, synthesizer and effect pedals, he constructs percussive, textural music for his deep, soulful vocals to croon over. Somewhere between Brian Eno and Tune-Yards, or Tortoise and James Blake, Harris’ music explores pop music as organized sound. The Deli Magazine writes: “This is soul music functioning as 21st century meditation... [This] is what happens when an artist personally realizes the sound of his environment, and puts it to use.”
Opening track “Kipple Chamber” immediately envelops the listener in a sea of churning detritus, before a warm synth chord rises and the song begins its insistent pulse. Inspired by John Chamberlain’s mangled metal sculptures, author Philip K. Dick and UFO cults, it is a fitting introduction to the world of “Blanton Ravine.” The album was recorded last fall in various homes and studios in New York City, with collaborators (including Johnny Butler, Jonathan Wood Vincent and Zach Ryalls) contributing piano, prepared guitar, violin, and looping saxophone. For direction, Harris used intentionally vague statements like “the sound of cats scratching their way out of a whale corpse.” Other instructions were given in the form of abstract paintings or oblique hand gestures. “I have great respect for and trust in these artists,” he says, “so I wanted to give them the freedom to explore their own interpretations, while being guided in the subtlest ways.” Everything was recorded by Harris and painstakingly processed, stretched and reshaped to best serve the songs."