(Ethereal / Chamber Pop) Amber Spyglass - Discography (3 WEB) - 2001-2012, FLAC (tracks), lossless

Издатель (лейбл): Self-Released
Номер по каталогу: none
Продолжительность: 00:26:47
Источник (релизер): bandcamp.com
Трек-лист:
01. Higher. (04:17)
02. Burning At Sunset. (04:39)
03. Going Down. (07:45)
04. Simple To Say. (05:26)
05. Creep. (04:40)

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Издатель (лейбл): Self-Released
Номер по каталогу: none
Продолжительность: 00:49:37
Источник (релизер): bandcamp.com
Трек-лист:
01. Pearls Of Blue. (05:37)
02. Red Dust. (04:01)
03. Hand In Position. (04:51)
04. Little Things. (04:37)
05. Silent Ravine. (04:53)
06. Catalyst Groove. (06:20)
07. I'm Afraid Of Americans (Bowie-Eno cover). (04:19)
08. Her Dark Swan. (03:12)
09. Divide. (04:25)
10. Venus In The 8th House (instrumental). (02:22)
11. In White. (05:00)

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Издатель (лейбл): Self-Released
Номер по каталогу: none
Продолжительность: 00:24:06
Источник (релизер): bandcamp.com
Трек-лист:
01. Harmonic Tide. (04:56)
02. Unfortunate One. (04:28)
03. On The Wire. (07:11)
04. Violent Silence. (02:52)
05. Like Lost Lovers. (04:39)

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Amber Spyglass is primarily the collaboration of Kelly Spyglass (vocals, guitars) and John DeGregorio (guitars, bass, programming). Starting in the late 90's as a dark alternative band with gothic, ethereal leanings, they continue to build upon gothic roots with updated folky arrangements to their older songs, while newer material is firmly anchored in Kelly's songwriting and guitar finger-picking style. Currently Amber Spyglass performs as a quartet with violin & cello but at every stage their sound has been marked with multi-layered arrangements featuring progressive and tribal drums, world music flourishes, sampling, alternate guitar tunings and stringed instruments.
The two met in 1997 in Amber Spyglass’s previous incarnation called Orifice which was receiving some attention from having their song “Oddity” on the Cleopatra Records compilation Unquiet Grave Vol.1. John was winding down his tenure as bassist with the eminent Boston group Opium Den at the time when Kelly phoned him to see if he would join, which he did on the condition he could play (mostly) guitar instead. The first self-titled EP Amber Spyglass was recorded in a traditional fashion on 24 track reel-to-reel in a studio with a full band, except for the song "Going Down" which was a late addition. It was tracked by John at various locations using ADAT recorders but still with live instruments. John had been supplementing his income recording local bands in a DIY fashion. He also engineered two other bands that both he and AS drummer Fernando Medina were in together: Orisha and Reflecting Skin. In '99 the group, then a quintet, was renamed Amber Spyglass. At the time, the reference to the His Dark Materials fantasy novel series by Phillip Pullman was still fairly obscure but it wasn't long though before the "name question" dogged them. Coincidentally, several years later, they met someone who worked for New Line Pictures who gave them the contact to the music supervisor for film versions of the Pullman series. Despite the odds of getting through to Hollywood to begin with, the production for subsequent sequels ceased since they were contingent on sales of the first film which didn't do well enough at the box office.
In early 2001, the stable lineup from the first EP started to drift apart including Fernando Medina who set off on the path of becoming a working musician. He was hired to do a few tours with Valor's Christian Death, and eventually moved to Chicago. A period of fill-in musicians commenced but also necessitated the first instances of John & Kelly playing solo acoustic sets. Kelly had barely begun to pick up guitar yet so it was John on heavily-effected acoustic guitar while triggering sampled strings and ambient soundscapes with midi footpedals, his trademark dual role carried over from all his previous bands. A new crop of acoustic-based songs was hatched that would become the basis for most of the second album Accelerating Parcae. The time Kelly & John had to play as a duo also allowed them to explore cover songs for the first time. Regular set inclusions consisted of "The Line" by Nico, "Numb" by Holly McNarland and notably "Cities in Dust" by Siouxsie & The Banshees. They had already learned the latter before 9/11 and found themselves performing it at CBGB's Gallery in NYC in Oct '01 and throughout the next year.
In 2002 a new drummer & bassist were hired for local shows and a spring tour of the Middle-Atlantic states The two were initially on board with laying down their tracks for the new cd in the studio. When it was time to record though, they neglected to show up for any of the sessions and became unreachable without explanation. It was not only a financial loss but a setback for morale and the release schedule of the cd. Right at this time John had mostly transitioned from tape-based recording to DAW (digital audio workstation) software and was wide-eyed to the possibilities afforded by the new paradigm. He proposed an alternate approach of programming the drums and bass and eschewing the traditional recording studio for the time being. The initial results were promising enough to commit to the whole album.
Programming the drums (and to a lesser extent bass) was particularly challenging considering most of the new songs were written on acoustic guitar and had already been played live as both a duo and a full band. Despite John & Kelly's love of electronic genres like trip-hop and downtempo, the predisposition of the songs made it impossible to simply drop in typical drum machine sounds or ready-made loops. So each song was carefully tempo-mapped to correspond with rehearsal recordings of the live players and a couple of decent sounding sampled drum sets were chosen for the palette. Instead of merely mimicking the drums of the live drummer, John found that he had fallen down the rabbit hole towards exploring his own inner-drummer. Suddenly it was possible to test atypical rhythmic ideas against straight ahead guitar patterns, freely audition different drum sounds and add elements of world percussion, strings and other keyboard sounds which had always been on his agenda but difficult to implement. As with any scenario involving an overwhelming influx of choices though comes potential paralyzation. The software learning curve negated any short cut to finishing the cd that may have been presupposed. However at a time when recreating the sounds of classic synths and drum machines was trendy and techno beats as ubiquitous as corn syrup, AS began to realize the potential of sampled instruments and "organic programming" as a way to potentially stand out and a legitimate means to fulfilling their vision.
2003 saw a flurry of performances including the SXSW festival as a quartet, an East Coast tour as a duo and all-Siouxsie set as a trio. After the release of Accelerating Parcae began a longish period without any new cds but instead a lot of local shows and maturation in general. The quest for a rhythm section and other players remained elusive, especially drummers of a certain finesse. The few that were of caliber were already on loan or just otherwise weren't able to stick around long enough to include back into the writing process. One exception was bassist Dave Chervanak who became a fixture and confidante and also contributed to Accelerating Parcae At different times AS played live along to pre-programed drum tracks from a laptop with mixed levels of satisfaction. Meanwhile a ton of new material was sketched out but got bogged down in the demo stages because the workflow of their computer-based recording hadn't fully solidified and was highly susceptible to things like upgrades and new software.
In 2009 Amber Spyglass' DIY label Decorative Records took a step beyond being a mere facade and released a cd compilation entitled Sky So Grey - a Boston dark music compilation. Boston has long been a haven for many kinds of underground and experimental music scenes--ska, punk, and grunge exports among them. SSG featured a smattering of loosely-affiliated bands and solo artists from the Boston area whose common denominator is creating somewhat introspective "dark" music (industrial, cabaret, ethereal, etc.) many of whom were affiliated with an artist-run group called The Ominous Collective which sponsored several shows between '04-'06. SSG continued in the spirit of other local artist-run label compilations produced by the likes of Castle Von Buhler Records, Archenemy Records, and others, which served as a snapshot of the local gothic, industrial, synth-pop, ethereal, and shoegaze scenes in the 90's. In May '09 a cd release party was held by Decorative Records that featured most of the acts over two consecutive Saturdays, including Amber Spyglass.
A new and stable lineup for live shows emerged in 2010 in the form of a quintet featuring Dave Lowe (drums), Melika Fitzhugh (bass) and Anne Marie Bottcher (cello). During the previous years John had come to rely heavily on writing out chord charts for players with varying degrees of detail. Since both Melika and Anne Marie were classically trained, and John trained in using notation software, he decided to commit to writing note for note parts for those songs that were already solidified and also concoct intricate arrangements of their latest cover songs. It allowed them to span a wider repertoire given a relatively limited time to rehearse in real life. Simultaneously, Kelly had already begun to play guitar really well, with finger-picking a dominant characteristic of her style. In 2011 she embarked upon playing solo acoustic shows as a way to express herself outside the context of AS and also fast-track her latest songs to an audience raw. Whether solo or fronting the full band, Kelly was coming into her own vocally and began to hold the center stage and reach audiences like never before.
Around this time too, John had a conversation with Steven Archer of Ego Likeness when Steven freely suggested that AS adopt their approach of issuing EPs on a regular basis as a means of keeping media and fans engaged. While initially loathe to return to the EP format, John & Kelly admitted that it was exactly what they needed to conquer and divide the demos they had amassed over 6 years. They outlined a plan to release a series of cd EPs that correspond roughly to clusters of songs in various stages of development. The first of which, Breathing in Essence was released in September 2012 to largely critical acclaim and a radio campaign to follow during the Fall.
Earlier in 2012, Amber Spyglass temporarily changed course again and forfeited using live drums for purely aesthetic reasons. Instead, rolling out a sparser more portable lineup that would more closely compliment Kelly's new acoustic-based songwriting. In addition to retaining Anne Marie on cello they added violinist Rachel DiNoto. Both Anne Marie and Rachel appeared on Breathing in Essence as live string players. The shift to an acoustic format is only hinted at on the latest disc but will likely be represented on later releases. AS started including cafes and art galleries as regular venues which were previously impractical. In these "listening rooms" they found a diverse, welcoming, and attentive audience, far removed from glut of competing indie rock acts that tend to dominate the rock circuit. (с) amberspyglass.net