In hindsight, ‘A Welcome Noon’ is not an album. Well, at least it shouldn’t be. It’s a sporadic offspring of sounds and improvisations; sonic discoveries and mistakes. Then again, if it relates to creating, is there really much value in the words “should” or “shouldn’t”?
Since 2018’s Skylight, Minneapolis composer Chris Bartels’ first offering as Elskavon in over 3 years at the time, there had been a steady and varied output of ambient, electronic, and experimental music from Bartels, displaying a broad stylistic musical palette. But under his flagship moniker Elskavon, there hadn’t been a defined album process. There wasn’t yet an album “season,” like those of the past.
But slowly, surely, and organically, there was a definite collection building over time - several cassette and analog tape-based improvisational studio experiments that soon took their own form. Without an intentional album process, this collection morphed into its own album - it was a hidden process - Bartels just needed to see it, discover it, acknowledge it.
In June of 2020, ‘A Welcome Noon’ was compiled and released, with that hidden process characterized in the music itself, with warm, nostalgic tape hiss and pitch-bending throughout the ethereal drone soundscapes. There’s a simple, yet rich depth to these songs, finding their own unique personality in that they were created separately from a more traditional process for Bartels.
'A Welcome Noon' was originally released exclusively on Bandcamp in June of 2020 with the following message:
All proceeds from this, as well as from everything else on my Bandcamp page (digital, vinyl, CDs) for the rest of the month of June will go to WeLoveLakeStreet and West Broadway Business and Area Coalition.
Minneapolis has been my home since birth. I love this city. I love its diversity. My heart goes out to the family of George Floyd, and to the black community. My family and I are committed to listening, learning, praying, and acting.
Black lives matter. They always have, and they always will.
credits
released June 5, 2020
"Deeper" composed and performed by Chris Bartels and Josh Leininger (Rosen Poem).
All other music composed and performed by Chris Bartels.
No album I can think of in recent memory soothes my anxious mind as the calm of glittering guitar riffs mix with gentle synth pads to paint serene landscapes in my mind Rudie V.
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