Quieter, the new album by Carla Bozulich is out now on Constellation records and you can stream it in its entirety above. She kindly wrote us this guide to accompany the stream.
‘Let It Roll’
Written by Carla & Jhno
Mixed by Jace Lasek
Jhno: duduk, sampling, programming & piano
Andrea Belfi: drums
Carla: bass
"This is the most honest work I ever done. Andrea Belfi is at his usual psychic, master drumming—here holding back—generous. Jhno’s duduk brought in my blood, my Armenian family—the inevitable travel (the running), the blood that pours, still. The point when you know it is nothing matters more than anything else—damn little. Family keeps you alive. In my case you all are my family, the sweethearts, the bitches and on down the line.
"Speaking of family, I think we wrote it while cat sitting for Father Murphy in Treviso, Italy. I don’t remember being sad at the time."
‘Sha Sha’
Written by the Night Porter (Band)
Mixed by Steve Fisk
Ches Smith: drums, vibes
Jessica Catron: cello
Shahzad Ismaily: bass
Carla: voice
"We were a band called The Night Porter after Scarnella and before Evangelista and all of us were thick as thieves so it was easy and really fun to write and play and we played as a band sharing every single thing. We always had fun. We wrote in Manhattan, recorded, toured, made an album in 2005 in LA. But everyone blew up with other things and four piece bands are expensive like having quadruplets. A few songs were mixed by long time comrade, Steve Fisk in Seattle, including this one. Thank you, Steve.
"If you see Shahzad’s pretty, sleepy hands you’ll understand Sha Sha even better. This song was grabbed from an as yet unreleased full length album."
‘Glass House’
Freddy Ruppert: Music, words, programming
Carla: voice
"The fantastic child Freddy Ruppert of Los Angeles and a frequent, fave performer at The Smell with his project This Song’s A Mess But So Am I, grew, moved to Prague, married magical Veronika, started Former Ghosts and sent me this track to sing on with words and all music (sending words very rare!) I loved it. However, couldn’t seem to sing on it until a couple years later I was in the Brazilian forest at a most rowdy youth hostel with animals and birds lacking all possible boundaries of noisy variety on a typical day in paradise. I was bumming out at my lovely wandered-off boyfriend. Still, somehow Freddy made me sound lush and wet like the big trees that whipped around me in the forest."
‘Stained In Grace’
Written by Carla & Jhno
Jhno: cello, viola
Carla: voices
"It’s mostly 2, 4 and 6 second loops from a 15-minute piece Jhno made which I tweaked and adorned with stuff I pinched from my archives while he cooked beans. Hundreds of edits and moving stuff around. So fun! We recorded in Oakland when we were housesitting for Jonathan Segel’s house. I finished the mix house-sitting at William Tutton from the Fibbers and Alvaro Vega’s in Silverlake. I sang from bed. Often do. Jhno sniffed once when he heard it—that’s a compliment."
‘Emilia’
Written by Carla & Francesco Guerri
Francesco Guerri: cello
Marc Ribot: guitars
Carla: bass, sound manipulations, callaging, looping, voice
"This is taken directly from an instrumental track Francesco Guerri sent me five years ago sent me five years ago from Bologna, Italy, as a consideration for yet another full length unreleased (duo) album we have developed over years of tours and collaborations. It sat there for so long that I forgot what it was until I randomly opened it one night thinking that I had about ten minutes before Marc would slowly drop my guitar and the persons lounging into my borrowed bed would have to make the exit. Since Marc was tinkering on my guitar with the magic glow of red rifle-shell xmas lights and with three intelligent woman snoozing with occasional stimulating commentary, I should set up a mic, put head phones on his head and play him pretty much anything unfinished that came up on my hard drive. He’s the real deal. He can’t resist joining enticing sounds even against the urge to sink into a pleasant snooze chair late at nite. And Francesco drew him in. I hadn’t sang a word, yet.
"The song was chosen quickly like a bingo chip, from my large collection of unreleased stuff —In fact every track here comes from that coffer and, as with most of my pieces I later re-styled, remixed, looped up and obsessed the hell out of it Emilia.
"Francesco, the best cellist I know, is tolerant of the many times I’ve done it with his work. Thanks, Fra. Long we run.
"Speaking of family, I think we also wrote it while cat sitting for Father Murphy in Treviso, Italy. I don’t remember being sad at the time. For me that is the point—my vacation from feeling, from caring… I simply go clear—I become an erasing machine. Heaven like other people do vacations. But this one takes all that to the edge. Slow scalding force to stay awake to a lullaby. This here is truth-telling."
‘Written In Smoke’
Written by Carla & Sarah Lipstate
Sarah Lipstate (Noveller): guitar
Carla: sound manipulations, callage-mixing, looping, voice
"Recorded as most of these were, by my travel suitcase.
"Sarah Lipstate is playing all the guitars here from what was originally a 20-minute guitar duo portion of what could have been a whole album. I had lost my mind from grief. Sarah’s parts were solid, though. After that stint in a beautiful burning hot basement in Carroll Gardens, 2010, our music sat for years. That is not right because Noveller is one of my favorite things. When I found these basics and was in a good playful frame of mind (Echo Park, 2016) I nixed my guitar parts, finding that using just a few very short bits of her focused dream-inducing work and creating loops and collage with those, along with my voice and random items from around the tool shed, would bring this piece to fruition. When I had the final mix we turned off the lights—just xmas lights on. Listening to it for the first time with Sarah in that dark little room in Echo Park, I could feel her purring. It was like getting a golden crown."
‘End Of The World’
Written by Marc Ribot
Engineered by François Lardeau
Marc Ribot: guitar
Carla: voice
"I went to Marc Ribot’s in Brooklyn, Shahzad suggesting we work on some of Marc’s music—just voice and guitar. His friend Philipe set up a real nice mic for me and one for Marc’s guitar. Marc gave me the words to one of the most sophisticated tunes I’ve tangled with. You know—sometimes actual space is the place. And we ran it. He was like, yes, but can you sing with less tone? Ha.
"Anyways it was done in like 15 minutes. Again, it sat for a few years, almost lost deep in some trashy box. A year or so ago I came across it, wrote him and asked if we could use the song for this record. I couldn’t remember the name of the tune. I had some elaborate story I thought it was telling involving a gorgeous, curving NYC all window sunroom covered in smashed glass. And a hospital girl. He didn’t know what I was talking about. Ha! Anyway, Marc wrote every note. I had nothing to do with even the lyrics and the meaning is safe with him."
