Stephen Becker // Phosphenes & Allegories TAPE

This cassette was released in September 2023 by guitarist Stephen Becker from New York, USA, on the ambient label Atlantic Rhythm in Washington, D.C., in a limited edition of 9 copies.

Contains 19 lounge jazz, fusion, and ambient songs played by electric guitar. DL code included. 

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Includes DL code. Cassette in norelco case. Edition of 100.

Tracklist:

1. I (Beginnings) 00:46
2. II (Daydream Heroics) 02:47
3. III 01:12
4. IV (Imagined Country) 02:06
5. V 00:58
6. VI (Mahler 5 Adagietto [excerpt]) 01:45
7. VII (Verbal Pat on the Shoulder) 01:20
8. VIII (Five Spot Discovery) 02:44
9. IX 00:38
10. X (Air Brush) 01:26
11. XI 01:20
12. XII (Little Church) 02:24
13. XIII (I-80 Avant-Garde) 01:55
14. XIV 01:40
15. XV (Cereology) 01:25
16. XVI 01:04
17. XVII (BWV 995 Sarabande) 02:03
18. XVIII 01:15
19. XIX (Endings) 01:48

Atlantic Rhythms:

"Brooklyn-based artist Stephen Becker conceived his latest, Phosphenes & Allegories, as a soundtrack to 'a silent film that continues to be watched and interpreted by new people in new ways.' And as soundtracks go, Phosphenes & Allegories presents a range of emotions , ambiguities, questions, and soundscapes all united by Becker's distinctive guitar levitating within. 'I've mainly worked as a songwriter until this release,' he explains, 'so I've long craved breaking away from that world and making something purely instrumental .

Phosphenes & Allegories remained a private set of bedroom experiments for some time. As the quarantine in 2020 began, Becker needed a creative outlet and so pulled out his Tascam 4-track to begin documenting blurry fragments as a kind of time capsule. 'I was also watching a lot of art films and reading a lot of science fiction,' he says. 'There was something about the quiet intensity of filmmakers like Bergman and Haneke, and the shadowy alien landscapes in books like Dune and Left Hand of Darkness, that I wanted to express through the guitar.'

As the Phosphenes & Allegories sharpened in focus, a cohesiveness emerged. 'Things became more clear when I started to incorporate drum machines and synths.' he says. 'As I went further, I found myself making contact with other influences: the fluidity of Morton Feldman, the serenity of Aphex Twin, the romanticism of Joao Gilberto, the melodic integrity of Thelonious Monk. '

Becker began tweaking and tinkering with his own recording process to focus on chance and improvisation. 'This is the first time I've made an album this way,' Becker explains. 'Both this process and the location had a huge impact on the music itself. I was excited to take an approach that wasn't as calculated and drawn-out as my song-based albums.'

Phosphenes & Allegories oozes with a cinematic warmth. In many ways, that warmth harkens back to Becker's first encounters with improvisation and 'the idea of ​​abandoning it all, creating one's own language, letting the music flow outward with no required context,' Becker says 'In making Phosphenes & Allegories, I wanted to reconnect with my former self and my former interests in instrumental music, jazz, and improvisation.'

Artist: Stephen Becker

Label: Atlantic Rhythms