Cassette
A Glow Of Hands marks the fifth AST compilation, continuing a thread established via Feral Flotsam (2 x c90, 2012), From The Bottom Of The Earth To The Top Of The Wazir (12", 2018), Osmosis (2 x c30, 2020) and Pedestal Arts Estate (c90, 2020). Each of these work-meetings has marked something of an epoch in AST's (de)evolution and its varied (per)mutations.
In this sense, A Glow Of Hands might be the most settled yet.
A core nucleus of hands (minds, ears) that have toiled away in service of building Something, one wing of which is Altered States Tapes. AST is a rickety structure that, defying all estimates, has now stood for 16 years. This compilation was originally intended as a magnetic tape plaque to commemorate the event of 15 years standing. Like all global, bureaucratic organisations, this projection was not achieved.
What you find here are varied and tender responses to sound made by people I/we/AST can call friends, peers.
There is the "old", for instance early AST inductee Hour House, here made "new" in collaboration with YL Hooi, Tarquin Manek and Zach Schneider (some of other AST eras).
Manekly speaking, Tarquin appears under his Static Cleaner Lost Reward nom (first rearing it's hydra head on AST in 2012) and in duo with longtime fellow, James Vinci as Act Now (who has had various ID's on AST, at various times).
We are honoured to have Mikey Young, gracing these worn walls.
He, an entity that should require no introduction to those already acquainted with this sphere, not only blessing the label with his album Curtains (2020), but also toiling to shape many of its releases into a mastered, listenable form (this one included).
There are also the seemingly opposed, but playfully complimentary tones of Hayden Moon's eco whispers and the garage-clank of Suburban Cracked Collective, both taking different approaches to time spent in Newcastle.
Clearly, there are various projects in which I dabble: an offcut, considered "too weird for TV", of Th Blisks (a band also counting Yuta Matsumura and Amelia Besseny in its glowing hands).
There is the newly-minted trio of Troth & Glen Rey., soon to release a real-life LP (details TBC).
A first-time pairing of myself (as Ossifa) with Australia's goatest and weirdest Modern Fictional Mind, Shaun Prescott.
Another new band debuting, Aught Group. Essentially a duo of myself and fellow Hobartian Sam Davison, here in group-form featuring the beamed-in vocals of Millie Hall.
Millie also appears, in a rare apparition, on her ownsome (although beautifully quadrupled in voice).
Similarly scarce in public appearances, a vocal cover of The Big O by Anna Savage, whose 2022 7" still stands as one of my fave historical ASTs (please come back for another, Anna).
Lastly and by no means leastly, challenging me for sheer volume of appearances on AGOH is Amelia Besseny.
Appearing here in solo-guise as Impatiens, in nod of more-to-be-realised later this year.
But also in spirit as the light by which I am able to remain afloat and continue these activities in a life that has often been less than accomodating.
~ ~ ~ ~
This release is a celebration, of time-spent, friends made, lines drawn, work created. All in service of Something beyond the 2-8 minutes someone's moment lasts. It is a nod to things done and things yet to be done. A testament to the words our hands can write, the stringed instruments they can pluck and the knobs they may choose to twiddle if they desire.
