Label: Ballast

(予約受付中 - 8月中旬入荷予定)

なんと完成までに4年以上の歳月を費やしたという気合の極上ボックス物件!!Andrew McKenzieとChris Watsonのデュオとして80年代初頭に結成、87年後半以降はAndrew McKenzieのソロプロジェクトとなる伝説的ユニットThe Hafler Trio。オリジナルは2005年に米Crippled Intellect ProductionsがLPフォーマットで出版した[If Take, Then Take: Tricks, Half-Tricks & Real Phenomena]。当店も当時オリジナルLPを入荷しましたが、どうやらそちらには諸問題があったらしく、長年「あるべき姿で世に送り出したい」と思っていた今回の版元Ballastが異常な程の豪華装丁で初復刻したのもの。台形の特殊な形状のボックスに、2枚のCDとDVD、そして大量のアートワーク・カードを封入、極めて繊細で静謐な響きを持つオリジナル音源を最高の形で作品化。追加のCDとDVDには幅広いアイデアを詰め込んだとの事。

>>SAMPLE<<

After more than four years in the works, I am beyond elated to announce the release of ballastnvp067: The Hafler Trio: If Take, Then Take: Tricks, Half-Tricks & Real Phenomena (2 x CD, DVD, cards, and enamel pin in custom fabricated box). I originally released If Take, Then Take: Tricks, Half-Tricks & Real Phenomena in 2005 as a vinyl record, and it didn’t go off without a hitch or two. (In the end, I played almost every copy prior to sending it to a customer or distributor as a quality check against [maddeningly] inconsistent anomalies.)

My lingering itch: I want to do this release justice. And now, here we are. Certainly, there were challenges along the way—nothing worthwhile is ever without. Files got corrupted. Technology failed. Older, critical programs were inexplicably rejected by their longstanding operating system. Older, critical programs were subsequently rejected by a “newer” (relative) operating system. Experts were called in. Concerns and recommendations voiced. Experts tapped other experts when their equipment didn’t deliver.

Everyone is doing what they can, but, as you surely understand, there can be nothing guaranteed. However. There were also strokes of luck and good fortune sprinkled along the path and, most importantly, Andrew and I had a rapport healthy with levity underlying the entire process.

Without straying too far (or at all, to be honest) into an “all will be revealed” (because it very well may not, nor should it be—let’s continue being honest) trope, I will state this release contains everything I could have hoped for. Hearing the original recordings—which often lean extremely delicate and quiet—in this format is simply a joy, and the second CD and DVD each sweep through a breadth of ideas in ways for which I was not prepared. For which I was pleasantly unprepared, in fact, because one of the pleasures, for me, of the work of the Hafler Trio is misdirection.