01. Motion Parallax voir
02. A Drifter With Purpose
03. Tanger
04. North Sands
05. Melos Rhythm
Release date: 10th October 2024
Limited edition of 400 LPs + Digital
Order the album
Melos Kalpa formed in 2019 around the vision of Tom Relleen; a quintet of musicians employing unconventional instruments and strategies to make music that exists somewhere at the intersection of improvisation, minimalism and sublimated reverie.
Musicians Agathe Max (Abstract Concrete, Papivores, These Towns), Jem Doulton (Thurston Moore Group, Too Many Things), David John Morris (Red River Dialect) and Tom Relleen (Tomaga) perform via the conduit of producer Marta Salogni’s intricate tape preparations, which create rich textures, delays and distortions of their unique instrumental palette (marimba, vibraphone, violin, guitar, mandolin, Buchla Music Easel and more). Using techniques of chance and (non)intention to determine the direction of composition, the group felt their way into new terrains in the autumn and winter of 2019/20; sauntering days of immersive play recorded at Studio Zona, London.
From this undulating territory five distinct zones – with their own peculiar landmarks, weather and dialects – are now opening via the portal of this, the band’s first record. These realms have been awaiting visitors since taking form four years ago. Uninhabited and uninterpreted. Thriving, grieving and interrelating. The band now make them available for the listener’s own exploration, passing on the possibility of a not-knowing experience; where next, why not, so what, let’s go? The gift they all experienced in the joyful journey-without-goal from which these artifacts came.
They will be performing resemblances of these recordings in live settings in the coming year, giving new life to the final project of their dear friend Tom Relleen; much missed but still somehow smiling in the midst of these memories forgetting themselves for a fresh moment.
All music written and performed by Melos Kalpa.
Main session recorded at Studio Zona, London, by Marta Salogni between September and December 2019.
Overdubs recorded by Tom Relleen and Marta Salogni at The Bunker, London.
Tom Relleen: Buchla Music Easel, Bass, Vibraphone, Mellotron.
Jem Doulton: Marimba, Vibraphone, Drums, Shaker.
Agathe Max: Violin, Viola, Mandolin, Mellotron, Vocals.
David Morris: Guitar, Cuatro Puertorriqueño.
Marta Salogni: Revox PR99, two AKAI 4000DS Reel to Reel Tape Machines.
Produced and mixed by Marta Salogni at Studio Zona, London
Artwork and layout by Romain Barbot
