Two Acorns is a new label started by Will Long, one half of Celer. He deals with ‘things you can hold in your hand, or keep on your bookshelf, to keep these feelings, memories, and experiences. There is no replacement for the smell of a book, the spin of a CD player starting’. Hear hear. The label starts of with a collaborative release of his band Celer (which was Long and his partner Danielle Baquet-Long, who passed away) and Yui Onodera. The latter provides field recordings, electronics, guitar, violin, piano and musical box, while Celer holds the mixing board, cello, violin, piano, field recordings, theremin, electronics and ocarina. I am not sure but I don’t recall seeing many collaborations of Celer, but the result, four lengthy pieces work out quite well. Its probably everything you would expect from such a collaboration (you could debate whether that is good or bad), but the gentle, sustaining, of course drone – a word that can’t be avoided when talking about Celer nor Onodera – like atmospherics work quite well, but what seems interesting is that many of the field recordings go unprocessed into the mix. Lots of rain, water, animals, street sounds, stuff that seems to be picked up with contact microphones and such like, and they bathe quite well in the string of sounds woven together on the various instruments. They add a great spice to the music, which doesn’t stick that much in the world of ‘just’ drones too much. Beautifully ringing overtones, ‘heavy’ street sounds, air traffic and crackling of leaves: together they create a mighty fine aural landscape. Beautiful. (FdW)

Celer, formazione tanto prolifica da avere sempre qualche titolo in circolazione, sebbene la sua esistenza sia stata bruscamente interrotta lo scorso anno a seguito della prematura scomparsa di Dani Baquet-Long. Ciononostante le registrazioni effettuate prima della tragica conclusione della parabola artistica ed umana del duo americano continuano a venir fuori con regolarità, come nel caso di “Engaged Touches” e “Dying Star”.

Il primo, già pubblicato nel 2009 dalla stessa Home Normal e immediatamente andato fuori catalogo, è una romantica elegia ambient derivata dall’estensivo sfaldamento di suoni acustici in forma di pura tessitura, reiterati loops di archi e pianoforte a rinvigorire una rinnovata idea di tappezzeria sonora à la Eno. Il tutto con quella grande delicatezza e serenità che hanno distinto, pur nella sventura, l’intero arco vitale del progetto di Dani e Will Long, entità concepita da un evidente atto d’amore.

Risalgono invece al 2008 le incisioni pubblicate nel secondo. In questo caso la scelta strumentale si orienta su mezzi ridotti, solo un sintetizzatore analogico e un mixer attraverso i quali vengono veicolati suoni flebilissimi, a tratti solo intuibili (consigliato l’ascolto in cuffia con volume limitato all’ottanta per cento della potenza), a stabilire un dialogo d’intimità con l’ascoltatore.

– Nicola Catalano

I’m writing this entry with a request to listeners. As you may know, when Celer began, all of our releases (for the first 2-3 years) were handmade, in hand-cut, hand-painted cases, and each copy had individual, personalized artwork, all created by Danielle.

Now looking back, I realize how great it would have been if we had scanned all of the covers, for some sort of artwork retrospective, however it wasn’t the case, and we never knew we’d stop making them, or that we’d even care about it in the future. There’s no way to predict such things, and maybe I know better now, but that’s also why I’m buried up to my neck in boxes of stuff.

I have a request to you, the listener, at this time:

Do you own any of the handmade self-releases of Celer?

I have decided to begin collecting scans of all of the covers that I have, and want to include all that I can find in a book for the future, of such things. If anyone would be willing to contribute scans of their own collection, I would be glad to include them in this book, and give them credit.

If interested, please send high-quality scans (or high-quality photos of non-flat releases)
to celer.adr@gmail.com

I appreciate your support, and hope to hear from some of you!

Many thanks,
Sincerely,
Will

Ein wunderbares Nachthimmelfoto von Danielle Baquet-Long ziert das Klappcover. Die jung verstorbene Künstlerin ist immer noch allgegenwärtig in der liebenden Erinnerung ihres Celer-Partners und Ehemanns Will Long. Die Kollaboration mit dem ähnlich umweltbewussten Japaner basiert auf geteilten Vorlieben für feierabendliche Stimmungen, Natureinsamkeit, einer Sehnsucht nach Veränderung, die einen in der Nähe von Flughäfen erfasst. Onodera, 2007 mit dem DRONE-Gütesiegel versehen, tönt die vier gemeinsamen Dröhnscapes mit Gitarrensound und Geige, Celer mit Strings, Theremin, Ocarina. Basis sind aber Feldaufnahmen, wie der schöne Einstieg in ‚An Imaginary Tale of Lost Vernacular‘ mit den Schreien von Wildgänsen. Verlorene Heimatsprache heißt auch verlorenes Zuhause. Ausserhalb von Arkadien bleibt nur ‚The Street Of A Rainy, Gray Day‘ und auf Bahnhöfen und in der trappelnden, geschwätzig lärmenden Masse ein Bewusstsein, auch ‚A Renewed Awareness of Home‘. Balsam für die wunde Seele ist der Drone, sonores, summendes, wenn auch noch dunkles Gedröhn. Beschwörender noch ist die rituelle Litanei eines japanischen Volksbrauchs. Ich halte es da mit Ernst Bloch: Die wirkliche Genesis ist nicht am Anfang, sondern am Ende, und sie beginnt erst anzufangen, wenn Gesellschaft und Dasein radikal werden, das heißt sich an der Wurzel fassen… Hat er (der Mensch) sich erfasst … so entsteht in der Welt etwas, das allen in die Kindheit scheint und worin noch niemand war: Heimat. [BA 68 rbd]

http://www.badalchemy.de/

Anonymous in itself,
and an expert in
acid management,

the leaf falls in summer
faster than
we can catch it —
though it merely proposes
movement,

so slight and indistinct,
and feebly —

ever-present and absent
in our summer.

Danielle Baquet-Long, 2003

‘The Die That’s Caste’ is packaged in a mini DVD/half size case, 3″cdr white printable, numbered edition, limited to 100 copies, with cover photography taken by Ana Zarco in Cramond, Scotland,
in August 2010. Layout and audio mastering by m.a.tolosa.

Available directly from con-v

A special website for Two Acorns has also been created by the wonderful Kitchen studio, who I owe an incredible amount of thanks to for this, and all of their help with Generic City.

Generic City is the debut release of Two Acorns, presented in a custom-designed CD package created by mondii with photography by Danielle Baquet-Long and mastered by Taylor Deupree.

Press Release:

“For this collaboration work, I made a lot of field recordings. Songs of migratory birds that come to a big lake only in winter, the sound of breaking ice, frozen on a lake, the peal of huge bells in a temple, voices in prayer to the Buddha, footsteps in the subway, machine sounds at a construction site, rain flowing into a steel pipe, the oscillation sound of rubbing iron which was recorded through a contact mic set on steel, the conversations of people walking in the city, noise of vehicles and trucks, kids voices from an elementary school and so on. Like a time trip to transcend places these sound-scapes are presented as a imaginary tale. To collaborate with foreign artists became a chance for facing Japan again for me. Reflecting on each of our localities to compose let us be aware anew of the vernacular which has been lost in the global world.” – Yui Onodera

“We contributed many instrument sounds and field recordings, the streets of LA, rain on our doorstep, water draining into the gutter, cars passing on wet and slippery streets, people walking on their way home from work, talking in an airport baggage claim, airliners flying over, riding bikes through traffic, conversations in restaurants, the Metro Link train in LA. In mixing, since we were working with someone’s instrument sounds and field recordings from a city that we haven’t visited, much was left to our imagination to re-create an environment and city setting. When these two entirely different cities came together it created an all new way of looking at and hearing the city’s movements around us.” – Danielle Baquet-Long, Will Long

Available directly through Two Acorns

Also available from these stores: Darla, Experimedia, Infraction, Playing By Ear, Databloem, Norman Records, Slow Flow, Rhythm Online, Boa Melody Bar, Boomkat, and Basses Frequences

998 copies. Stoughton mini-lp gatefold 2CD sleeve. 12 art prints and photographs by Peter Lograsso. Mastered by Corey Fuller.

Press Release:

“In February of 2008, Dani and I recorded, mixed, and completed the music for ‘Salvaged Violets’. The words came as the subject line of a short poem, sent to me over email, included with an unrelated question. During these weekdays, our working schedules were almost the opposite, but we spoke over email constantly. Until recently, I did not notice how similar this was to our beginnings, sending letters as we were on different sides of the country. With no conceptual idea in mind, and since we were apart for so much time during the weekdays, we decided to begin ‘Salvaged Violets’, and see what came of it. Every night when I returned home, before sleeping, I would spend time working on the music that Dani had worked on through the afternoon, and had left on the desk. Every afternoon, she would find a different version to work on that I had left, and this continued for some time. When together, we would sip our tea, laugh at silly jokes, cook, watch television, and so on. There was no need for longing while we were together. There was always laughing, pots and pans clanging, or a muttering television. In forming ‘Salvaged Violets’, we did not mix it in a particular arranged order. It was mixed simply by the order it was first played, compiling many miniature sections rolled into one. In this case, they were rolled into two. Nothing was discarded, nothing was rearranged. As the sound changed over time, the original form did not. When it was finally complete, we listened together, for the first time. I remember how familiar it seemed, yet I also felt that so much of it was unknown, and undefined. More than a year later, in September of 2009, I revisited the recordings for the first time since 2008. At this time, it was being mastered by our good friend Corey Fuller, so I was still listening to the original. Riding my bike through the endless suburban subdivisions, through the busy downtown streets, I listened repeatedly, for days, over and over. Something was familiar, but so much I was unable to recall, and yet I was able to relate. I returned home, put my bike against the door, and took my headphones off. There, in the still silence, I think I understood finally what it was about.” Will Thomas Long, December 2009

Available directly from Infraction Records

Celer’s output over recent times has been prolific to say the least, and now Will Long (one-half of the duo) sets up his own label, Two Acorns. For this new imprint’s inaugural release Celer collaborate with Japanese artist Yui Onodera, with mastering duties performed by 12k boss Taylor Deupree. While much of the established Celer sound centres upon thoughtful, droning austerity this album is given a very different shape by extensive field recording work from both Los Angeles and Japan involved. Woven into this tapestry of environmental sounds and floating tonality you’ll hear migratory birds, ice breaking on a frozen lake, temple bells and sounds made by people in restaurants or on public transport systems. It’s becoming difficult to keep up with Celer’s release schedule, but it’s still well worth trying to maintain pace – Generic City benefits from Onodera’s additional pair of ears, and the final mix strikes up a deftly poised balance between beautiful ambience and more revelatory acousmatic material; in its finest moments Generic City offers an absorbing, occasionally hallucinatory portal into the audio topography of urban spaces.

http://boomkat.com/cds/352607-yui-onodera-celer-generic-city

Our album ‘Compositions For Cassette’ has been reissued by the cassette label Avant Archive, and is now available! Sincere thanks to Michael for making this special album available once again.

Find it here: http://avantarchive.com/catalog/index.php

Press release:

Celer’s Compositions for Cassette remains one of the duo’s most curious and exploratory works. This is Celer on a noble mission, with clearly defined rules and a very limited toolset. Over the course of twelve pieces, Will and Danielle gush their customary mysterious-yet-gorgeous sound, but in this particular case it is all built from brief piano loops recorded to quickly-decaying tape. The pieces are perforated all over, some of them appearing almost only as ghosts of what they might have once been. It’s an apropos approach for this couple who have such a distinct reputation for almost defining that controversial ‘genre’: ‘drone’. This reissue edition collects the original compositions now on Avant Archive’s customary high-bias chrome cassette, and it includes an original artwork and layout by Johnny Utterback, as well as some combinative photography and layout created in a collaborative process between Will Long and Avant Archive.