Nico Georis // Cloud Suites LP

California, USAThis is an album released by multi-instrumentalist Nico Georis from LA's long-established all-genre label Leaving Records in June 2023.

Contains 11 post-new age ambient to post-new age jazz songs with piano and keyboard as the main sources.

Recommended for those who like neo-classical music.

*If you would like a digital sound source, please feel free to contact us.

Below is a commentary by the label.

"California native Nico Georis has always straddled (or rather, negotiated) multiple dimensions. At a young age, Georis bounced between rigorous classical music training and DIY experimentation, becoming a protégé of Franz Lizst. (which made the piano his primary instrument), and would sneak into the basement of his childhood home, cluttered with his father's instruments and home audio equipment, to play and record freely. Despite his prodigious talent as a pianist, Georis has adhered to this calm and exploratory approach to music-making through numerous projects, acts, metamorphoses and chapters. Abandoning the pursuit of mastery and admiration, he devoted his talents to the broader definition of songcraft, expressing unknown worlds (or creating entirely new worlds) through melodies and repetitions.

Created after a five-year lonely battle with Lyme disease, Cloud Suites marks Georis' first return to experimental ambient keyboard composition.The tunes are clouds, or reflections of clouds, called "suites," and each tune is named after a particular stratum.Song titles range from meteorologically specific to expressive, such as "Cumuloids," "Sundog," and "Soft Yellow Gazers." Georis composes this suite in real time, peering out the window of his home and recording studio in Big Sur (Skyshed), reacting improvisationally to depicting specific clouds as music, virtually from the sky. I picked out the clouds. Georis calls this process a kind of musical game, and indeed its final deliverable is one that conveys replay and joyful revelations.

However, the road to realizing this project, which was born from lightness and improvisation, was a difficult one with many twists and turns. Over three years of recording, we experienced various technical and environmental setbacks, including equipment breakdowns and landslides.But until other projects (see 3's beautiful and elegant Desert Mirror) came to fruition, the idea of ​​Cloud Suites continued.When things finally worked out, Georis walked into the studio with a tattered collection of tape recordings.While playing this Cloud demo, Georis eventually weaved these early recordings into the finished track.

Seamlessly morphing across 11 tracks, Cloud Suites works wonderfully as a record (that is, as a stand-alone piece of music), but at the same time the project feels like endless possibilities.Georis, who stumbled upon this enchanting dimension (psychedelic and nostalgic), may not want to close its doors.Or maybe it's not his door that should be closed. "

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Ask us for digital files 12" black vinyl. 

Tracklist:

1. Bent Violet 05:21
2. Flight 04:50
3. Cumuloids 01:08
4. Thermals 06:38
5. Soft Purple Gazers 02:38
6. Ice Crystals 05:27 video
7. Sundog 04:07
8. Breeze 00:57
9. Raindrops 03:44
10. Soft Yellow Gazers 01:05
11. Daydreams 06:59

Leaving Records:

" California's Nico Georis has always straddled (or, rather, negotiated) multiple dimensions. As a child, Georis flitted between the rigors of classical training and DIY experimentation—studying under a disciple of Franz Lizst (a mentorship that would enshrine the piano as his primary instrument), then squirreling away to the basement of his childhood home, strewn as it was with his father's instruments and home-audio equipment, to play and record freely. Despite his evident virtuosity as a trained pianist, Georis has, across numerous projects, stints, incarnations, and chapters, persisted in this gentle and exploratory approach to music-making. Foregoing the pursuit of technical mastery and acclaim within the confines of the contemporary classical world, he has dedicated his talents to songcraft, broadly-defined — channeling unseen (or inaugurating altogether new) worlds through melody and repetition.

Conceived after an isolating, five-year struggle with a severe case of Lyme disease, Cloud Suites (out June 9th on Leaving Records) documents Georis's initial return to experimental ambient keyboard compositions. Conceptually, there is little ambiguity here: the songs—the “ suites”—are clouds, or, rather, reflections of clouds, each named after a particular formation. Track titles range from the meteorologically specific to the expressive: “Cumuloids,” “Sundog,” and “Soft Yellow Gazers.” Georis composed the suites in real-time, peering out the windows of his Big Sur cabin-home/recording studio (dubbed The Sky Shed), responding improvisationally to render specific clouds as music—in effect to pluck them from the sky. Georis has referred to this process as a kind of musical game, and, indeed, its end product conveys the recurring and joyful revelations of play. .

But for a project born of levity and improvisation, Cloud Suites' path to realization has been winding—harrowing, even. Over three years in the making, the recording process was beset by all manner of technological and environmental setbacks, ranging from broken equipment to a mudslide that tore through the Sky Shed. Nevertheless, even as other projects saw fruition (see 2022's beautifully elegiac Desert Mirror) the Cloud Suites continued to gestate. When circumstances finally aligned, Georis entered the studio with a rag-tag collection of tape recordings Performing over these Cloud demos, Georis would eventually weave these initial recordings into finished tracks, an analogue collage/cut-up approach recalling his childhood basement experiments, and his long-time affinity for Dub.

Morphing seamlessly across eleven tracks, Cloud Suites functions wonderfully as a record (that is to say, as a discrete release—a standalone musical artifact), but one also senses the limitlessness of the project. Having stumbled, largely by accident, upon this inviting dimension (at once bracingly psychedelic and achingly nostalgic), Georis may not wish to close the door behind him. " 

Artist: Nico Georis

Label: Leaving Records