joseph branciforte & theo bleckmann
LP2
catalog 006
release 8 dec 2023
duration 42:06
formats vinyl + digital
edition 300
theo bleckmann, voice + electronics
joseph branciforte, modular synthesizers, fender rhodes, max/msp, vibraphone, processing
The sophomore release from vocalist Theo Bleckmann and electronic musician & producer Joseph Branciforte, LP2 is a follow-up, companion piece, and elegant evolution of the shared musical language first developed on the duo’s debut, 2019’s LP1.
Branciforte & Bleckmann return with a meticulously crafted album of even greater scope and complexity, further dissolving the boundaries between improvisation & composition, live performance & studio production, human & machine-generated sound.
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1.13 |
07:20 |
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10.11.5 |
01:01 |
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11.15 |
10:12 |
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10.14.4 |
01:34 |
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8.11 |
03:06 |
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7.21 |
07:01 |
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10.17.13 |
02:03 |
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9.23 |
9:17 |
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The first sound one hears when putting the needle down on LP2 – a granular skein embroidered with the barest silhouette of a melody – is a moment typical of the collaboration between vocalist Theo Bleckmann and electronic musician & producer Joseph Branciforte: one is never quite sure where the human ends and the operations of machines begin. This frayed swarm uncoils over the course of minutes, gradually introducing more recognizable aural signposts and bringing the record into focus, like slowly waking from a dream.
The album’s seven-minute opening track, “1.13”, however, has more terrestrial origins: it was the soundcheck for LP1, the duo’s acclaimed debut album from 2019.
“In spring 2018, Theo and I went into the studio to record the material for our first album,” Branciforte explains. “After setting up all our devices, we did a brief soundcheck, just to make sure levels were set properly and that we could hear one another.” The two promptly forgot about this short improvisation as they went on to record and edit what would become LP1 – an album which Bandcamp called “jaw-dropping,” listing it among its Best New Ambient and Best New Jazz of 2019.
It was only in the final days before mastering that album that Branciforte discovered he had recorded the soundcheck. “Immediately upon hearing it, it felt like the opening of an album.”
The pair first tried reworking LP1’s sequence to include the newly discovered material. Then Branciforte recalled a quote he’d read from the visual artist Sol LeWitt. “He said: if you’re working on a piece and an idea for a new piece pops into your head, just write it down and finish what you’re working on.” From that moment forward, LP1 and LP2 were conceived as a set of two albums – complete with their coolly functional titles.
After a four-year gestation, LP2 can finally be heard in its entirety. The album, in its concentrated 42 minutes, proves that the palpable sonic chemistry heard on Bleckmann and Branciforte’s debut was no fluke. The duo has built on LP1’s successes – alloying Bleckmann’s otherworldly vocals with Branciforte’s extended electronic palette and obsessively detailed production – but they have also broken new ground in both textural invention and compositional scope.
In the summer of 2021, Branciforte and Bleckmann convened in the studio to begin fleshing out material for the second album. Surrounded by an arsenal of electronic, acoustic, and digital sound tools, the pair began constructing in a fashion similar to LP1: extended improvisations built upon asynchronous looping, live analog & digital processing, and deep listening.
But whereas LP1 was recorded spontaneously – with no premeditation and minimal post-production – the sessions for LP2 proceeded somewhat differently.
“This time, in addition to free improvisation, each of us brought in a few ‘prompts’ or ‘scenes’,” recalls Bleckmann. These prompts could be a verbal description, a musical or textural seed, or more explicitly composed material.
The pair also allowed themselves the use of studio overdubbing, occasionally adding additional instrumentation to their improvisations after the fact. “The use of overdubs allowed us to further blur the line between improvised and composed,” says Branciforte. Indeed, one hears fleeting moments throughout the album when the dream logic of free improvisation and the premeditated nature of orchestration converge: a vibraphone doubling a meandering vocal line, or a stack of voices outlining an intricate chord progression. These moments reveal the duo's willingness to experiment with structure and form, while maintaining the spontaneity that made their first album so compelling.
On other tracks, such as “10.11.5” and “10.14.4,” Branciforte and Bleckmann present an isolated snapshot of a sound, bypassing the conventional rise and fall of improvisation and presenting only its static middle. “These ‘microloops’ were something we developed in our live set, as a way of getting away from the usual arc of building something up over five or ten minutes,” says Bleckmann. “They can happen instantaneously – and they make things a bit less predictable.”
The album’s final track, “9.23,” pushes outward towards a more explicitly composed sound, with some of the record’s most elaborate orchestration: Fender Rhodes, bass synthesizer, glockenspiel, vibraphone, and wavetable oscillator in counterpoint with the seemingly impossible vocal range of Bleckmann. It's an apt conclusion to the album’s unbroken narrative structure, and to the series as a whole, tying LP1 and LP2 together while hinting at ever more possibilities just out of sight.
LP1 and LP2 also serve as fitting bookends to the greyfade label's inaugural series of releases. Central to the label's ethos is the belief that an album is not merely a collection of songs but a complete conceptual universe – a synthesis of sound, compositional architecture, design, and text worthy of sustained engagement. LP2, as a touchstone of sonic exploration and improvisation in greyfade's catalog, gracefully brings the curtain down on the label’s opening chapter and sets the stage for the ever more ambitious projects that the label is poised to unveil.
produced by joseph branciforte
recorded 18-19 august 2021 and 17 february 2023 at greyfade studio
edited, mixed & mastered by joseph branciforte
vinyl cut at lacquer channel toronto
POPMATTERS (US): 9/10 stars. A stunning experimental soundscape. There’s desperation, tenderness, mystery, and hope in these grooves. A profoundly satisfying new release that builds upon their 2019 debut. (read more)
PHILIP SHERBURNE / FUTURISM RESTATED (SP): Best of 2023. Layer upon layer of keening, reverberant drones that suffuse acoustic timbres and gently glitched-out electronics like a heavy mist beneath small-town streetlights. Breathy coos, gaseous pads, and the reassuring hiss of white noise settling in the darkness. If you’ve ever imagined Diskont 94-era Oval reworking Meredith Monk’s Book of Days, this is the record for you. A real stunner. (read more)
THE IRISH TIMES (IR): It’s like being taken on an aural journey to outer space or deep ocean, experiencing sounds no human has heard before. At once contemplative and stimulating, ear-opening and mind-altering, the music is enigmatic, somewhat disquieting and supremely visual. The overall sense is one of awe and possibility. (read more)
BANDCAMP (US): [A] minimalist delight.
THE WIRE (UK): Branciforte and Bleckmann trade in their own highly specific form of abstraction, beautiful and very nearly visual. Manages to make the alien sound familiar while discovering new contours, crevices, and some positively room-rattling low end. (read more)
THIS WEEK IN SOUND (US): One of the most remarkable feats of mutual support I heard in all of 2023. Bleckmann emits economical phrases with full knowledge and appreciation of what Branciforte is capable of doing, which is transforming whispers and humming and moans into beautiful, room-filling soundscapes.
SOMETHING ELSE! (US): By erasing lines of distinction between immediate & contemplated, natural & processed, Joseph Branciforte and Theo Bleckmann have crafted something novel, yet truly inviting. Bleckmann’s voice plumbs both the depths and the heights of his wide vocal range, making Branciforte’s elaborate, breathing construction something extraordinary. (read more)
MUSICA JAZZ (IT): Cleanliness, geometry, attention to detail, a minimalist architecture presides over the production of these sound atmospheres all under the sign of the dreamlike. Here everything is essential, dosed to perfection. (read more)
SEQUENZA 21 (US): Electronic, vocal and instrumental sounds woven into a rare and beautiful ambient tapestry. These pieces straddle the line between the warmly welcoming and the otherworldly. The clarity delivered by LP2 provides the listener with a new level of precision for the evaluation of unique sounds and unusual combinations. (read more)
PANM360 (CA): Top 100 Albums of 2023. A dense sound universe, filled with glitches and complex compositions. (read more)
NEW SOUNDS / WNYC (US): Otherworldly experimental forms and textures. Music that takes [Bleckmann’s] voice and [Branciforte’s] keyboards and just transports them into another sonic space. (read more)
DUSTED (US): Repeated motifs skew and recalibrate in soft focus with the deceptive simplicity of a folk song. Octaves are dismembered only to regroup, and tiny dynamic peaks stretch toward the infinities they imply. (read more)
INACTUELLES (FR): Magical osmosis between the electronics, instruments, & treatments of Joseph Branciforte and the voice(s) of Theo Bleckman: a fabulous journey into another world! How can you not be seduced, won over by such exquisite music? (read more)
SOUNDSTAGE (CA): As this side of the LP evolves, the sounds shift—from machine-gun electronic shards to various blips, beeps, and bleats—and the rising tension serves as highly effective staging for the final sweep of the soundscape: meditative, dark vocal tones over chimes and various electronic gestures. As it ended, the piece left me staring out at the snow on the river. I felt perfectly in tune with the elements. (read more)
DATAWAVE (US): Another amazing album from Greyfade, a beautiful combination of impressive vocal work of Bleckmann and very delicate and skillful electronics by Branciforte. Atmospheric ambient sounds, soft glitch, sometimes sequences and minimal rhythms… a complex work, full of rich sound textures.
AMBIENTBLOG (NL): [A] unique musical language. For those who know LP1, the music on LP2 is hardly a surprise. Or, let me rephrase that: it’s as big a surprise as LP1 was.
LOOP (CL): Wavering tones, clicks, a tapestry of glitches are the backdrop to [Bleckmann’s] spectral voice. Branciforte and Bleckmann are truly craftsmen who polish their pieces with delicate electronic arrangements and ethereal vocals, creating a poignant and immersive atmosphere.
UTILITY FOG (AU): Best of 2023. Bleckmann usually moves in the worlds of jazz and new music, but here his vocals are liberally sampled and cut up by Branciforte, using techniques the duo use in live settings. Bewitching.
HEADPHONE COMMUTE (UK): A fusion of vocal improv with electronic orchestration.
VITAL WEEKLY (NL): Music for everybody who is interested in ambient music, with a touch of modern classical music, a bit of new age and a touch of esoterism. Very abstract but with a sense of organisation.
8SIDED (US): LP2 is outstanding — process music that is warm and inviting, layered in improvisation but post-formed into composition — likewise suitable for deep listening & background floatation.
theo bleckmann
A vocalist and new music composer of eclectic tastes and prodigious gifts, Grammy-nominated Theo Bleckmann makes music that is accessibly sophisticated, unsentimentally emotional, and seriously playful, leading his work to be described as “from another planet” (The New York Times), “magical, futuristic” (All About Jazz), “limitless” (Philadelphia City Paper), “transcendent” (The Village Voice), and “brilliant” (New York Magazine).
Bleckmann has collaborated with musicians, artists, actors, and composers including Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, Ann Hamilton, John Hollenbeck, Sheila Jordan, Phil Kline, David Lang, Kirk Nurock, Frances MacDormand, Ben Monder, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kenny Wheeler, John Zorn, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, and, most prominently, Meredith Monk, with whom Bleckmann worked as a core ensemble member for over fifteen years.
joseph branciforte
Joseph Branciforte (b. 1985) is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, composer, and Grammy award-winning recording engineer based out of New York. He is the founder of the record label greyfade.
Branciforte's wide-ranging musical activity spans acoustic, electronic, and algorithmic composition, performance and improvisation on a variety of acoustic and electronic instruments, and an expansive discography as recording, mixing, and mastering engineeer. At the bottom of each of these seemingly discrete threads lies a relentless fascination with sound as a profound emotional medium — organized through musical form, articulated by a careful selection of sound sources, and framed through the act of recording.