
Release description:
The music of Will Thomas Long’s and Danielle Baquet-Long’s Celer is an absorbing combination of classic ambient, minimalism, and – perhaps as the most distinct characteristic – overwhelming romanticism. Longing, melancholy, nostalgia, and the like seem to be recurring themes in Will and Dani’s works.
Engaged Touches begins with hypnotic sounds of a train clattering on its tracks. This departure seems to set the whole piece into a context of travel and distance, moving away from and towards something, someone. After a while these sounds give way to a rousing, majestic set of string loops. Similar phases of different field recordings and grandiose loops take turns throughout the whole work. This brings about a dynamics of contrasts: the concrete and the abstract, the particular and the general, the mundane and the exalted, and so on. The phases of string loops take up most of the album and evoke a yearning feeling of distance, grand and epic. The title, Engaged Touches, however, refers to quite the opposite, the close and intimate. It feels as if it is these kinds of touches that the string loops wailingly, albeit very gracefully, long for.
This is exactly the kind of powerful romanticism that seems to define so much of Celer’s work.
Because of the heavy presence of string loops Engaged Touches reminds me of some of Celer’s earlier works. I would call it a classic Celer piece, if it weren’t for the fact that their oeuvre spans only a few years back, and it would be too early to ponder the distinct phases and the internal relations in their output.
Engaged Touches is another beautiful addition to the rapidly growing body of work by Celer – an oeuvre that I already consider one of the most important in modern ambient music.
Antti Rannisto
Our new release 'Engaged Touches', was set to be released from Home Normal Records on April 17, 2009, in an edition of 500 CD copies. Stores were supplied with copies ahead of time, and pre-orders were made possible on www.homenormal.com, and as of yesterday, all copies have sold out. We didn't plan to announce this release until the actual official release date, but since it has already sold out, here is the announcement.
The good news is that we will still have copies that can be obtained directly from us if needed, and more importantly/conveniently, from these great stores listed below.
Engaged Touches can be found in these stores throughout the world:
Japan
http://www.inpartmaint.com/pdis
http://www.flau.jp/
Hong Kong
http://www.whitenoiserecords.org/
Singapore
http://www.kitchen-label.com/home/
http://www.theasylum.com.sg/v3/
UK
http://boomkat.com/
http://www.normanrecords.com/
http://www.roughtrade.com/
http://www.smallfish.co.uk/
EU
http://www.databloem.com/ (The Netherlands)
http://www.microsuoni.com/ (Italy)
http://www.u-cover.com/ (Belgium)
US
http://www.darla.com/
http://www.experimedia.net/
We really appreciate all the support, and hope that everyone enjoys this album! You may hear from us again soon to announce the release of our new album on Dragons Eye Recordings, 'Breeze of Roses'.
Thank you again!
Sincerely,
Will & Dani