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Potential Landscapes

by Tristan Kasten-Krause

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    12" LP version of Potential Landscapes. Each sleeve is unique and includes a hand-painted rainbow over the Icelandic mountain range. Item is in production and is estimated to ship in June.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Potential Landscapes via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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    edition of 250 
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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Perfect for your car or walkman. Edition of 50 discs to fulfill your 1990's cosplay needs.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Potential Landscapes via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    edition of 50 
    Purchasable with gift card

      $12 USD or more 

     

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Contra 15:24

about

FOR BEST RESULTS LISTEN AT AN IMMERSIVE VOLUME

Tristan Kasten-Krause makes music to envision other worlds on his debut solo record, Potential Landscapes. A New York-based composer and bassist, Kasten-Krause has been tapped by iconic composers Steve Reich and Alvin Lucier and has played in Oklahoma! on Broadway in addition to actively participating in the local DIY and experimental scenes. On Potential Landscapes, he blurs reality and perception, making music that feels real but is, in actuality, impossible. Potential Landscapes channels the potential energy of escapism into four sweeping, contemplative tracks made of undulating possibility.

Kasten-Krause has gigged in New York’s contemporary music scene for many years, but over time, he’s grown wary of collaborative music-making that feels transactional and centers on one artist. Potential Landscapes is antithetical to the idea of the auteur, instead centering the joy of creating sound with other people. Kasten-Krause has united a group of some of his closest friends to work with him on this record: Cloud Nothings drummer Jason Gerycz, experimental vocalist Lisel (Eliza Bagg), Tigue percussionist Matt Evans, electric guitarist and composer Brendon Randall-Myers, and violinist and cheesemonger Carol Johnson, with album art made by his brother, Jordan Kasten-Krause. Rather than dictate the music they contributed to the album, Kasten-Krause embraced a true spirit of collaboration, allowing each musician to bring their individual musical practices to the album. The result is remarkably cohesive, swimming through each unique influence with cinematic grace.

Potential Landscapes was recorded non sequentially between 2018 and 2020, structured around meetups with collaborators who were scattered across the country. The sound they create is deceptively serene, made of tranquil hymns and long meditations, but underneath the surface ripples layers of different musical instruments and deep-felt emotions. To write this music, Kasten-Krause turned to Éliane Radigue’s colorful drone music that blooms from a deep sense of intuition, Jon Gibson’s groundbreaking minimalist clarinet playing, Phil Niblock’s minimalist compositions that remove breath and bow changes to create unending sound clusters, and Alvin Lucier’s explorations of resonance and space. He formed each piece on the album by uniting the fragments of music his collaborators sent him, shifting pitches and removing breath and bow strokes, then mapping each note onto its own channel, using automation to digitally create sounds. This process was one he began when working with LEYA harpist Marilu Donovan on their duo record, Nowhere. But that album was made of music that was adrift without a home, the kind of otherworldly music that was meant to launch you into outer space; Potential Landscapes is music that has a place, even if that place is only imaginative.

The music of Potential Landscapes follows an emotional arch: It begins with the dawn of a new day ("Dawn Looming") and all its possibilities, jumps to the intense feelings of ecstasy and sorrow ("Euphoria Cancel" / “From Thin Air”), and finishes with a simultaneous strength and fear ("Contra"). The album’s cover features the imagery of a black and white Icelandic mountain and hand-drawn rainbow, evoking a sense that there’s a hidden realm that exists beyond the horizon. Potential Landscapes reminds us that we have the ability to go there. Its infinite music transports us to heightened mental realities, and there’s an endless potential energy bubbling up from its glimmering sounds. Each contains a spectrum of emotion just waiting to be cracked open—all we have to do is choose which one.

credits

released April 23, 2021

Matt Evans - Keyboard
Brendon Randall-Myers - Guitar
Carol N Johnson - Violin
Jayson Gerycz - Percussion
Lisel (Eliza Bagg) - Voice
Tristan Kasten-Krause - Double Bass

Recorded between 2018-2020 in Brooklyn NY, Cleveland OH and Los Angeles CA.

Mixed by Tristan Kasten-Krause
Mastered by Jack Callahan
Executive Production by David Roush
Design by Jordan Kasten-Krause
Photography by Chris Cubellis

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Tristan Kasten-Krause Brooklyn, New York

Tristan Kasten-Krause is a bassist and composer living in Brooklyn, NY.

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