Languis

On Monday August 13, 12pm (PST), Languis will be releasing its new LP “Close Up” via Simballrec.

The record will be streamed in its entirety on dublab.com

About “Close Up”

Languis looks inwards for inspiration on this collection of songs.  Close Up could be considered a retrospective album in a sense.  It’s a view of its own work to be re-interpreted in new compositions.  From the Jazzy sound of the post-rock era, to ambient and the deep dance tracks, nothing new seems to be under the sun, but more of the same, in the best of ways.

Tracks like Alpine show that prog side of Languis, where Tangerine Dream is a clear influence, while a re-work of the song Counting the Days from Unithematic is only a reminder that the band has fallen in love with its own sound.  The compositions come from different eras of the band; the songs contained within this 15 tracks release go back as far as the time of Simball Sounds, their first LP from 1997, and up to the early days of Other Desert Cities EP, which happened almost 10 years later.  Still, up until 2011 some of the tracks were being worked on.

Close Up looks at Languis just as the title suggests, the melodies, layers and rhythms are all there.  Without self awareness but fully accepting who they are, Languis keeps moving forward, while looking back… without anger.

Languis’ “LA” is the band’s 13th record. Originally conceived as a retrospective album with past recordings of the band, “LA” took a form in itself by the suggestions of NY label CD-Rt, choosing the songs and the order of them. At the end of the process “LA” became a bit of a lost record that presents the band’s classic melancholic melodic/ambient style. The songs have taken years to come together as one release, but now it is clear that it is meant to be this way.

From the first workspaces in Altadena, Ale’s apartment in Hollywood, to the depths of the Eco Village basement in Koreatown and the guest house haven in South Pasadena, the songs in “LA” do end up portraying the city that Languis chose as their home.  The sun is up, the sky is blue, and there’s no traffic on the 110 freeway. Your car speeds up and the windows are open. At the time Ale and Macros were unaware of its impact but in the end, LA served as a profound influence for this collection of songs.

Available on CD and digital.

CD-Rt website: www.cd-rt.com
Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/cd-rt/sets/languis-la/
Bandcamp: http://cd-rt.bandcamp.com/album/la

DUBLAB will premier a new Languis film by Huckleberry Lain this SUNDAY, February 20th
More info below:
dublab presents…A LABRAT MATINEE 9 : our minds align

Open your pupils wide and join us for rarely seen music videos, new dublab VisionVersion films, comedy clips, out-there animation and other eye-melting magic. After the films stick around for a musical mind alignment party featuring a live performance from one of dublab’s favorite bands plus Labrat djs playing soundtrack selections on the Spanish Patio. Don’t miss these visions burning bright!!!

All Ages / 7:30pm
$12 general or FREE FOR CINEFAMILY MEMBERS.

the Cinefamily
611 N Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, 90036
323.655.2510
cinefamily.org

The film “Parallel” is now available on Vimeo.
“Parallel” is a collaboration between Huckleberry Lain on the visual side and Languis, creating the music.

The music for “Parallel” consists of some original work made for this project, mixed with songs and passages the band composed in the past for other projects, performances and releases.  The music features the more experimental, and abstract side of Languis, with clear references to musique concrete, ambient music, and sound collage.  There is in a way a story being told through the music.  The story may not be one that can be explained, it is more like a sequence of feelings and experiences.  The collaboration with Huckleberry Lain came from the two meeting at a Languis live performance.  After exchanging ideas, the two realized there was too much common ground to pass the opportunity in working together.  The end result is a work that features sound and image existing in parallel realities; connected, yet independent from each other, but always inevitably following the other side and depending on each other for direction and meaning.  From abstraction to rigorously organized rhythms and shapes, the story of “Parallel” is one of transition and change, a journey describing transformation of states of mind and place.

“Parallel” (part 1 of 3)
“Parallel” (part 2 of 3)
“Parallel” (part 3 of 3)

LA Weekly did a nice write up about it, so what better than to quote the words of Chris Martins to describe this release:
“L.A.’s unsung heroes of dream-pop, Languis, have just released a brand new, completely free album. All 11 tracks of Higher Hell are able to be downloaded at the group’s Bandcamp site. By singing, strumming, synthing and drumming, they’ve recorded at least nine albums that run the gamut from shoegaze to vintage psych-pop to jangly folk to sound collage. Truth be told, Higher Hell dabbles in a little of each of those all on its own.”

In 1997 Alejandro and Marcos spent a year attending an electronic music class at Pasadena City College in Los Angeles. The purpose for taking this class wasn’t really to learn about the wonders of MIDI or some not-quite-developed curriculum. The two of them found out before signing in that by being part of this class they would gain access to the school’s music lab, which had, among other not very interesting instruments, a full Moog Synthesizer with an 8 step analog sequencer. This synthesizer took over two walls of the room, and before Alejandro and Marcos started using it, no one had laid a hand on it for years.

The moment they had access to this synth, the duo booked as much time in the lab as possible and embarked on a mission to compose music inspired on some of their favorite records of the time, like Morton Subotnik’s Silver Apples On the Moon, and Douglas Leedy’s Entropical Paradise.

“Experiments at the Pasadena City College Music Laboratory” is not so much of a record but really what the title suggest, experiments. In these four pieces you can hear layers and layers of analog synthesizers combining and re-combining in a random way. It may not be recommended to listen to it all at once, the sounds can really drill through your brain, sometimes taking you to far away places, and sometimes just plain giving you a headache. Nevertheless, this collection of sounds are true and raw, recorded straight to cassette, “Experiments at the Pasadena City College Music Laboratory” offers a view of Languis at its infancy discovering synthesis and creating their language for electronic music.

Available via iTunes, Amazon and most digital online stores.