Refused - The Shape Of Punk To Come (yes!)

Ion Dissonance - Cast The First Stone (was vacuuming, didn't pay enough attention)

Isis - Panopticon (starting to grow on me)

Deltron 3030 - Event 2 (yes!)

I spent a few years not listening to much music, new or old.

The two reasons that come to mind are the aural exhaustion after playing for several hours each day and, later, my changing tastes.

Apart from a few rabbit holes, the odd concert or night out at a rock bar, music was playing. Something to make, to be made.

There's a joke about (classical) musicians having poor (or no) taste in music and I guess this can be a passable explanation.

As I don't play the whole day anymore, I now have some time to listen.

Lists help me:

• The music of friends
• The music of friends of friends
• Bands/albums/composers you did not have the time or maturity to enjoy
• Channels of curation for new music

Curating a personal archive is, for me, necessary in these times (the only ones we are going to live through).

Even if it is just to have a band or track to show of speak about.

https://andrelourenco.bandcamp.com/album/the-beautiful-dreams-2

An album has just been let go.

The Beautiful Dreams (TBD for short) #2 is out.

TBD has been more akin to an exploration and learning process than to what is currently understood as a musical project. No deadlines, tours, merch, socials are planned, enforced, deemed necessary.

Hence the letting go.

After improvising, I choose parts that strike me as interesting and let them play for a long time while adding discreet, incremental changes to the texture. Then repeat. Stretch. And repeat.

The end result is for me, more than a conversation with myself, like the repetition of a word or short sentence. Repetition in this case does not mean exact, strict, minimalist repetition, but a playful approach to what can change. Words can blur and lose meaning, the stressed syllable or sound can change, the mode of vocalisation can be altered (think speaking with open mouth or without throat sounds)...

Tatiana Rosa was the first listener. Her contribution to this album started during a residency at EMS in Stockholm in December, 2024. She was the resident, I was drooling at the synths visiting. The finishing touches were performed at our own (still mostly conceptual) Chloroform Studios.

The inward-focused, process-heavy element of TBD tends to set this point in time as the end (an end?) for a particular album in the series. In this case, due to the long time between releases, the third volume is already well underway.

We take our time here,

André