Limited edition LP version available on Root Strata
Hailing from Chicago, Zelienople have been etching out a place for themselves in the Windy City for the past five years. Constant collaborators with Souled American's Scott Tuma, this quartet mixes ghostly song structures with ambient drones better than just about anyone. With recent releases on Time-Lag, New Zealand's Pseudoarcana, and Tarentel's Root Strata imprint, the boys of Zelienople are rising like vines toward the canopy.
"Stone Academy" picks up where 2005's brilliant "Ink" (recently reissued on CD by Loose Thread Recordings) left off. It balances the simple beauty of guitar-based songs with overwhelming, dark drones. The combination is as powerful as it is intricate. Each note, each chord is carefully chosen and perfectly placed; they never take too long or push too much. The attention to detail is magnificent. Zelienople have mastered the art of making expansive, luminescent drones sound as organic as the soil beneath your feet. "Stone Academy" reverberates like it's planted deep inside a lost cavern, hidden miles beneath the surface waiting for excavation.
With rich textures and challenging soundscapes, "Stone Academy" is a wholly satisfying listening experience. The darkness is only a canvas for the light of these compositions to shine through. Zelienople offer up one of the year's finest aural adventures.
tracklist:
1. plaster dog
2. fuck everything (audio sample)
3. elephant
4. fire machine
5. more mess
6. southside
7. pissing
8. bird's face
9. when you were 9
Press for Zelienople:
"By increasing the immediacy and inventiveness of their recordings, Zelienople has declared that they are ready to up the intensity and confront listeners with an expanded arsenal while still maintaining a consistent aesthetic. It's the kind of move many artists never make and reveals a predeliction for adventure I'll be listening for wherever it takes them next." - Fakejazz
"For every moment that evokes the horrible sound of an animal's dying cry, there's another that suggests the peaceful calm that inevitably follows a traumatizing episode of violence." - Ron Schepper, Cyclic Defrost
"A few spaces away from Zoviet France, and not just alphabetically: like those cryptic British experimentalists, this local quartet is fond of drones, disembodied sounds, live-to-tape recording, and looming ambience. The group employs guitars and tuned suspension cables among other instruments on the album, but damned if I can tell which is which." Chicago Reader
"This is harmonically and texturally challenging drone music packed with so much emotion and darkly seducing beauty that it sucks me in time after time. Recommended." - Mats Gustafsson, Broken Face