Alone at Last, by Janek Shaefer

Alone at Last

by Janek Shaefer

supported by

Andrew Sutherland Great album, but suggest everyone instead purchase this from the artist directly at:

janekschaefer.bandcamp.com/album/alone-at-last

(Beware: I bought this and another CD from sirr-ecords, and they were never sent/received; sirr ignored all my messages & Bandcamp's messages & I eventually had to claim the money back via lodging a PayPal dispute which took several weeks)

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

€6 EUR or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
CD opaque Black case with 8 pp Booklet

Includes unlimited streaming of Alone at Last via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 8 days

Purchasable with gift card

€10 EUR or more

1.	Alone at Last 05:00	buy track
2.	Come on up 19:00	buy track
3.	Scarlet Arrives 05:09	buy track
4.	Vasulka Vauban's Day in the Good Life 10:03	buy track
5.	End of Hope & Gllory 01:00	buy track
6.	All Bombing is Terrorism 11:33	buy track
7.	Boulevard Peripherique 09:51	buy track
8.	Ever Ending Story 01:49	buy track

about

review:

The compositions cobbled together as Alone At Last were originally installation works and thus derive from a confined and limited performing space and time. Wrenched out of this context, and without extensive linear notes to fill in the blanks, the work presented here seems of an altogether different sort, estranged as it is from its own social function and historical value.

Perhaps the title is ideal. Pried from their respective shells, the works are no longer so much invested and thus obligated to signify; they float, are brought closer, offered up to one’s stereo, and, either through habit or concentration, are subject to scrutiny, both in terms of their individual segments and how, in various ways, they fit together to form a whole.

The intense liberation of these compositions, restrained at first and then suddenly thrown into the air, comes along quite well. Pieces want for nothing. The opening selection is aglow with the sound of rain and dried insects rustling against each other in the green ambient air of evening. Numerous other tracks are also painted with recognizable particles, and appear, at least during the opening movements, as strangely orderly and tranquil in mood.

Always, though, what for the time being suggests the glade of a swarming landscape soon proves ready to hurl itself into chaos. “Come On Up” does as much, as feet stomping up a stairway and an animated dialogue from a Spanish television program give onto feathery tones that sustain a hovering sense of abstraction for most of the tracks nineteen minutes. Toward the end, though, details emerge from the pieces hayfield simplicity: thrumming orchestral and keyboard samples of a metallic sheen grow more prominent, jostling and colliding as they unfurl an eerie mournfulness laden with decorative electronic trills and fidgety figures.

As the tonal palette is vastly extended and the swathes of tones cluster and mingle to feverish effect on the aforementioned track, Schaefer as a composer remains noticeably breezy and unruffled, upholding an orderliness and clear, ingenious progression, and finally dotting all of the i’s and tying the loose strings together in a resolute manner. Owing to this strident approach and exquisitely calibrated judgment, the shimmering, stately cascades of high-frequency tones found on other compositions succeed in absorbing the listener, just as in other places it ensures they are rejected or otherwise rearranged. Alone At Last is thus not without its own coherence; Schaefer’s musical masks feed off each other and establish a setting that is both old and new.

Max Schaefer

credits

released February 2, 2010

A collection of commissioned compositions 1997 - 2007.

With thanks to all who commissioned the pieces:
Lawrence English, Martijn Hohmann, Yannick Franck, Philippe Petit, Colin Fallows, Philip Blackburn, Denis Boyer, The Urban Salon, and Sirr.ecords.

license

about

sirr-ecords Portugal

founded january 2001

contact / help

Contact sirr-ecords

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Alone at Last, you may also like:

Of Shadow and Substance
by Lea Bertucci

A disquieting, yet serene, reflection on industrial decay from the experimental New York-based composer. Bandcamp Album of the Day Dec 1, 2023
go to album
Images
by Colin Andrew Sheffield

Colin Andrew Sheffield (Elevator Bath) repurposes heavily manipulated jazz samples into gorgeously eerie soundscapes. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 20, 2023
go to album
Cataclysmic System Binding Loss
by Carbon In Prose

Shards of static & distortion crash against disarmingly beautiful piano & synth melodies on this riveting new record from Carbon and Prose. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 30, 2022
go to album
Amaro
by Jeremy Young

The new album from electroacoustic composer Jeremy Young is draped in a sense of mystery, tones flickering gently, like an old home movie. Bandcamp New & Notable May 9, 2021
go to album
Soft Earth
by Conor C. Ellis

Meticulously constructed and deeply haunting, immersive ambient; a lovely debut from this Michigan artist. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 23, 2019
go to album
On The Pedestrian Side
by Angela Sawyer

A fearless cult figure from New England's underground scene, Sawyer's no-fi experiments with everyday objects and body sounds are greatly rewarding to those who have the patience and curiosity to give them a chance. Bandcamp Album of the Day Jan 20, 2017
go to album
Request Stop
by Various Artists

Brachliegen Tapes's electronic compilation finds magic in the simple act of riding the bus. Bandcamp Album of the Day Feb 12, 2024
go to album