New Album from Alfred Brown of AKR Library Catalog Music Series

December 7th, 2012 , by

Earlier in 2012 we released Alfred Brown’s Music for Moving in Slow Motion as one of our Library Catalog Music Series (if you haven’t heard it you can hear it here).

Today Alfred released The Seagull: A Song Cycle on Abandonbuilding Records.

Originally intended as a soundtrack for a film adaptation of a play of the same name by Anton Chekhov, this collection eventually developed into an entity unto itself. In this adaptation, Chekhov’s tragic figure Konstantin Treplev was to be portrayed as an experimental composer of music, rather than a playwright and “The Silent Drum” was intended to be one of Treplev’s personal compositions. This cycle can be listened to as a chronological account of the story or as a meditation on the main themes. It is the internal dialog of a man plagued with self-doubt and self-pity, jealousy, and paranoia. It is the soundtrack that no one, but Konstantin can hear. These are his prayers to a god that he does not believe in. Prayers to save him from himself. Prayers that go unanswered.

You can hear and purchase The Seagull: A Song Cycle below, or here.

THREE NEW LIBRARY CATALOG MUSICAL ENTRIES

April 12th, 2012 , by

The Library Catalog Music Series is not for the casual music buyer. It is instead music directed at those with very particular needs and desires. For that reason, when we roll out a new set of these albums we avoid fanfare and ego embellishing. The Library Catalog requires no fanfare because it is fanfare. The people who need to know, know.

And those who know, know that the Library Catalog Music Series can help sell something. Or provide a soundtrack to the birth of a child. Or the background music for cubical efficiency implementations. The Library Catalog is Epcot Center (TM) in its creative approximations, and the Grand Canyon (C) in its magnitudinal awe. 

The newest additions, volumes 15, 16 and 17 are no exception. 

They include the dubbed out mouth beats of Ero Gray ricocheting off of ancient subconsciousness of our planetary ancestors, the shimmering waves of Alfred Brown melting symphony halls and mausoleums walls returning the orchestra to a place of grandeur and hope, and the deep sonics and nuance wizardry of Effacer wielding sound as the sound of sound itself.

These are albums that do not only occupy the airwaves and the shelves of record collections, they occupy the annals of history. They rapture consumers from plundered FM assimilation. They circumvent subpar creative directors and medicore agencies, rescuing listeners in retail storefronts and movie-goers from the mundane needle-drop of uninspired hacks with high end synthesizers.

Rest. Listen. Breath. And feast your ears on these new and fresh audio delights, now available for all your licensing and listening needs in both the original physical needle drop form of vinyl records or in instantly gratifying digital stream or download compatibility. 

Listen and purchase here.

JIB KIDDER RELEASES

April 17th, 2011 , by

Library Catalog contributor, Jib Kidder, created his volume Music for Hypnotized Minds solely from samples of previous Asthmatic Kitty releases. He has taken this one step further and created a music video for his track "Blue" using nothing but samples of Asthmatic Kitty videos. True to it's name, the video is quite blue. Sufjan fans might even recognize a particular strum. We think you will enjoy. So please do!

INFINITIROCK RELEASES EP

March 23rd, 2011 , by

Next week, InfinitRock contributes to the ever-expanding Library Catalog Music Series. Today, he has released a superb EP via iTunes. You may purchase here. While you do so, here is some downhill lawn skiing to get you in the mood.

YOU WANTED IT, WE PAID PEOPLE TO MAKE IT: NEW LIBRARY CATALOGS

March 1st, 2011 , by

"My computer crashed last night. Is there a soundtrack for that?" wrote Elenor Hilt, a teacher in Maryland. From Frank Edds, a landscaper in Miami, we received this request: "I am trying to remember where I was on August 22, 1997. I think a song might help. Can you make one?" 

We get letters like this all the time. We carefully take these letters, send them to our Department of Communique Statistics and Analysis, and wait. Six months later they provide a 600-page report detailing what kind of music to pursue next in our ever-growing Library Catalog Music Series. 
 
With Elenor and Frank and that 600-page report mind, we present Music for Troubled Machinery from Leb Laze, of Prefuse 73 touring band fame, and Music for Primordial Recollection from SUNY biology student slash glitch producer Infinitirock. We've thoroughly tested these on multiple focus groups, including primates, and the result is the same: betterment of life through background music. With each new release to the Library Catalog, we find another mood, temperament, and life situation that can be scored. These are no exception to that rule.
 
You can read more about Leb Laze's contribution here, and Infinitrock's here.

JIB KIDDER AND B LAN 3 JOIN THE LIBRARY CATALOG SERIES

February 8th, 2011 , by

The latest installments of the Library Catalog Music Series are being unpacked from the manufacturer's shipping crates. They will be meticulously inspected and then distributed far and wide to the citizens of the world, for all of their listening needs. Volumes 11 and 12 can now be added to your shelf to complement your growing collection. We are pleased to introduce the talents of Jib Kidder and B Lan 3.

For his entry in the series Music for Hypnotized Minds, Jib Kidder (aka Sean Schuster-Craig) limited his sound pallette to the existing AK catalog, using only turntable manipulations, respatializing effects (echo, reverb, EQ) and splicing to create new mood-based shorts. As in the artist's past works, Music for Hypnotized Minds draws on the dream-logic ideas of hybridization, dislocation & temporal simultaneity. The results are the perfect record for meditation in motion like reflective, solitary walking or summer highway cruising with loved ones.

Volume 12 in the series, Music for Hunting and Mapping, comes from B Lan 3, a solo project by musician and visual artist Michael Diekmann. A resident of New York City, Diekmann also records and performs with the minimalist cold-wave formation Ike Yard, and the pioneering experimental hip-hop group Death Comet Crew. He has also composed or contributed to soundtracks for video and multimedia installations for multimedia artists including Gretchen Bender, Robert Longo and Marcello Mazzella; and also contributed music with Death Comet Crew to the audio book version of Neuromancer by William Gibson.

We invite you to sample these new audio delights:

“cruising 1,” Jib Kidder (Download)
“Peekskill,” B Lan 3 (Download)

WILLIAM RYAN FRITCH AND COMIC WOW OUT TODAY IN LIBCAT SERIES

October 26th, 2010 , by

You might have heard of a certain shoe company opening a certain studio for indie bands. Very nice of them.

We went a step further. We here at Asthmatic Kitty contracted out established, recognized musicians like William Ryan Fritch and Comic Wow to record music that will fit perfectly into whatever life situation you are in. We designed this with your life stream in mind.

So-called stock music isn't just for corporations and television stations anymore. You are your own brand, and justifiably you need a life soundtrack to personally identify and reinforce your self/brand. No need to clutter one’s life with subpar content/music! Hence the Library Catalog Music Series.
 
Today we are releasing two new volumes in the series: composer William Ryan Fritch's Music for Honey and Bile and sonic illustrators Comic Wow's Music for Mysteries of Mind Space and Time. The CDs are $10, LPs are $14 with S&H, and MP3 is just $8.
 
You can stream them below, and/or buy on their release pages. Click here for William Ryan Fritch's release, and here for Comic Wow's.

900X ON LAMINAR EXCURSION MONTHLY

June 4th, 2010 , by

Of course you have used 900X's Music for Lubbock, 1980 for a variety of life-purposes; mowing, oystering, folding, reversing, dissecting, etc. Upon reflection you may have dug deeper in, where you would have realized that 900x is drummer James McAlister, also of Ester Drang, and also drummer on Sufjan Stevens' Illinois.
 
You may want more. Lukcily, McAlister is appearing on Laminar Excursion Monthly, a 24-disc 3" CD subscription series from Flannelgraph Records and Crossroads of America Records. The contributors receive two new 3" CD's a month from contributors the likes of Richard Swift, Cotton Jones, Damien Jurado, J. Tillman, Vollmar, Bexar Bexar, Joe O'Connell (Elephant Micah), Everything, Now!, Homecomings (DM Stith collabrator Mike Dixon), etc., etc. And of course, James McAlister.
 
You can order said subscription here.

RICHARD SWIFT, KRISTIN MILTNER PROVIDE NEW LIBRARY CATALOG ENTRIES

May 22nd, 2010 , by

There is only so long we can ignore your letters and electronic mail. Despite six volumes worth of life-soundtrack, you needed more. There is, you wrote, so much life to live, and not enough soundtrack to fill it. We have listened and, in graciousness, responded. We are now two volumes closer to providing the perfect score to your entire existence. 
 
With you in mind, we are pleased to announce volumes 7 and 8 of the Library Catalog Music Series. These are versatile pieces and it will be up to you to fully discover their various applications but rest assured that we are providing our standard, industry-famous 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. You will not be disappointed. Our two new composer recruits, Richard Swift's Instruments of Science and Technology and Kristin Miltner, have crafted music that will unfold in new ways with each subsequent listen. 
 
Advertising executives! Don't bother with backward-masking your corporate sloganeering. Seventy-two-percent of Soundologists say that music from the Library Catalog Music Series will adequately stimulate the consumption cortex in shopper's brains. These two new volumes will be the only hook you need to start reeling in the Benjamins. Read more about Instruments of Science's Music for Paradise Armor here and Technology Music here and Kristin Miltner's Music For Dreaming and Playing here.

THE LIBRARY CATALOG EXPANDS ITS INCLUSION

October 3rd, 2009 , by

Shhh. The moment is about to pass. But, wait, …there is something missing, something important. A crucial element that exists in all moments like these…ahh, yes, music, that’s it. 

And this, friends, is the point in your life where you reach for the Asthmatic Kitty Library Catalog shelf in your music collection. Luckily, we are doubling its size as of December 8th. Lowell Brams, Director of Asthmatic Kitty, turns out Music for Insomnia with a little help from Sufjan Stevens and Bryce Dessner (of The National). Read more on this ode to sleeplessness here.
And you might also recognize a certain Roberto Carlos Lange. He lives in Brooklyn and has great hair – ok, ok we give in: it’s the frontman of Helado Negro. And his Music for Memory is a swirling disc of loops and drones perfect for those memory related quests for keys, or mid-afternoon epiphanies. Here.
Finally, there’s Seattle-based Yuuki Matthews with his Music for Savage Tropical Imagery. Don’t let the title dissuade you; jungles aren’t all lions and vines. Think more SUVs and lightposts. In 100 years. Music for Savage Tropical Imagery is the perfect soundtrack to commutes, either now or after the apocalypse. Read more here.
Next Page »