Friday, January 29, 2016

CORY STRAND "A YEAR OF SOUTH PARK" 2016 SUBSCRIPTION SERIES (24CDRs + BONUS) (AOW 360)

I had a lot of fun doing my 2015 subscription series, "A Year Of Carpenter," so I've decided to do another series for 2016.  This time i'm embarking on an epic exploration of South Park, one of the most caustically funny and intelligent shows currently airing.  I've been a fan of the show since it debuted in 1997, and it's amazing to think of how consistently brilliant it's been since then: its humor has only gotten more extreme and over the top, its attitude toward culture more nihilistic, and its artwork and animation jaw-droppingly gorgeous, rich, and detailed.  I've been wanting to work with the series for a long while, and I'm thrilled to have found a suitable project.
So here's how the subscription series works for 2016: each month, you will receive two (2) CDr's from me, packaged in the usual Altar Of Waste style (DVD cases, interior/exterior artwork).  Each month's CDs will be a twin rework of the audio one of my favorite episodes of South Park: one rework done in harsh noise style (much like my "Totality" recordings from my large film sets) and one done in drone style.  All totaled, at the end of the year, you'll have a set of 24 CDrs, all with consistent packaging and layouts.  They'll look pretty impressive all lined up on a shelf!  Also included is a special bonus item, which will ship out with the final installment of the series.  All of these recordings are 100% exclusive to this series and will never be released in any other format. 
There are five subscriptions available: three in the United States and two for rest of world.  Please note that since I am mailing out a package every month, the rest of world cost on this series is, unfortunately, significantly higher.  The cost:

"A Year Of South Park" Subscription Series, USA: $200
"A Year Of South Park" Subscriptions Series, REST OF WORLD: $380

Each set is hand-numbered by me, as usual with AOW releases.
The first two months of the series are completed and ready, so when you order this you'll immediately receive four (4) CDrs: the two January discs and the two February discs.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

DEJECTION "RED WEDDING/FULL OF TERRORS/SENTENCE AND SWORD" 3 CASSETTE SET (KNIFE WITH A SMILE)

Knife With A Smile has recently released my newest work as Dejection, a three cassette set of recordings based on HBO's Game Of Thrones.  The sounds here cross the spectrum of everything I do with Dejection, from blistering caustic HNW to empty, drifting ANW to spacey, droned-out kosmiche synth explorations.  I love these recordings and am truly indebted to Mitchell for releasing these under his label.  The three tapes included are:

"Red Wedding" C54: the most aggressively HNW of the set.  Raging, deep, crushing gobs of molten distortion.

"Full Of Terrors" C46: deep, cavernous ANW/drone and uber-spaced out synth excursions.

"Sentence And Sword" C42: drifting, expansive ANW.

These three tapes are only available as a set.  I have two copies available through AOW.  $15 ppd. in the United States, $31 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com 

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

CORY STRAND "SICARIO: A REINTERPRETATION" (DELUXE EDITION) 18CDR + DVD-R SET (AOW 355)

Deep drone/ambient rework of Johann Johannsson's dark, brooding score to what was one of my favorite films of 2015, Denis Villeneuve's Sicario.  Operating in the same morally ambiguous territory as works like No Country For Old Men, The Counselor, and Breaking Bad, Sicario details the true cost of fighting the "war on drugs" at the absolute highest level, revealing the exacting and enervating twin tolls of violence and law.  The film spirals into the same sort of nihilistic despondency as The Counselor, a black hole where right and wrong become interchangeable and blood is the only currency that matters.  It's simply epic filmmaking of the sort rarely attempted anymore.
Johannsson's score is damn near perfect, a reflection of menace and darkness that never lets up in anxiety, tension, or sorrow.  In working with the material i've retained those qualities and transformed them into 18 EP-length pieces of drone and ambience (between 3 and 18 minutes each); this is some seriously deep and hollow work, meant for headphones.  Focused listening reveals detail.
This is the Deluxe Edition, with each of the 18 pieces packaged in separate DVD cases, each with their own artwork utilizing my favorite images from the film (I did the screen grabs for all of them myself; this film features some absolutely astonishing, breathtaking cinematography.)  This edition also includes an HNW "Totality" recording crafted from the film's entire audio track, on a DVD-R.  Released in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $150 ppd. in the United States, $166 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "SICARIO: A REINTERPRETATION" (REGULAR EDITION) 3CDR (AOW 355)

Deep drone/ambient rework of Johann Johannsson's dark, brooding score to what was one of my favorite films of 2015, Denis Villeneuve's Sicario.  Operating in the same morally ambiguous territory as works like No Country For Old Men, The Counselor, and Breaking Bad, Sicario details the true cost of fighting the "war on drugs" at the absolute highest level, revealing the exacting and enervating twin tolls of violence and law.  The film spirals into the same sort of nihilistic despondency as The Counselor, a black hole where right and wrong become interchangeable and blood is the only currency that matters.  It's simply epic filmmaking of the sort rarely attempted anymore.
Johannsson's score is damn near perfect, a reflection of menace and darkness that never lets up in anxiety, tension, or sorrow.  In working with the material i've retained those qualities and transformed them into 18 EP-length pieces of drone and ambience (between 3 and 18 minutes each); this is some seriously deep and hollow work, meant for headphones.  Focused listening reveals detail.
This is the Regular Edition, with my reworked score spread across three discs and everything packaged in a single DVD case.  Released in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $20 ppd. in the United States, $36 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

Friday, January 8, 2016

CORY STRAND "TAKE SHELTER: A REINTERPRETATION" 12CDR (AOW 347)

A large-scale rework of David Wingo's haunting, beautiful score to Jeff Nichols' masterful film Take Shelter.  I'm not going to write much about the film here because I don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't seen it-i'll simply say it deals with matters of epistemology and the perception of mental illness, has breathtaking cinematography, and features an absolutely incredible performance by Michael Shannon.
I've been toying with this rework on and off for two years now.  Much of Wingo's score for the film is made up of very short pieces, many of which are based on simple sine waves, making for difficult transformations.  My rework also traffics in shorter, EP-length pieces (each disc being between 7-23 minutes), featuring extended deep-bass drones and lush, enveloping ambience, best experienced through headphones.  It certainly belongs to the category of my "lovelier" works, suffused with a tiredness and sadness and sense of doom that echo the feelings of the film.
Packaged in an oversize DVD case and released in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $60 ppd. in the United States, $76 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

BIG HOLE "PROXY" 5CDR (AOW 339)

Truly crushing, extremely bleak and horrifying five disc release of HNW material from Big Hole, inspired by and based on Peter Sotos' compendium of work Proxy.  For those who haven't read it, Proxy is an absolutely devastating collection of five of Sotos' early works; taken together, the  writings become a truly enervating, utterly exhausting literary wipeout exploring the darkest impulses of human sexuality and violent tendencies.  The writing becomes almost hallucinatory and transfixing; in this sense I feel Sotos' output shares much in common with the HNW genre, in that it works to bludgeon you into a form of deeper understanding and transcendence through very violent means.
The five discs here certainly take that approach to an extreme.  These are simply some of the most despondent and unchangingly static blasts of aggression i've heard from Big Hole, a gargantuan exploration of greyness and emptiness, of violence and terrifying personal insights.  True HNW in every sense.
Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 10 hand-numbered copies.  $25 ppd. in the United States, $41 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "BUYER'S MARKET" CDR (AOW 349)

Released in conjunction with Big Hole's "Proxy" set, this album features my own rework of some Peter Sotos material, his deeply disturbing spoken word/sound collage album "Buyer's Market."  I completed this piece quite awhile ago but felt working with Sotos material might be just a bit too obvious, as his themes and interests are so closely intertwined with a certain aesthetic strain of HNW work.  But after hearing The Ebony Tower and Gender Sabotage's gargantuan split release based on Sotos' Selfish, Little: The Annotated Leslie Ann Downey, i felt that this material could indeed be handled deftly, an audio echo of Sotos' terrifying vision of violence and cultural culpability.
My piece is a 73 minute ANW style composition, deeply bassy and rich in distorted textures.  I find it very unsettling and somewhat creepy to listen to, perhaps owing to the disturbing nature of the original recording, but perhaps also owing to the overall black hole style sonic approach i took to the material.
Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $10 ppd. in the United States, $26 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "CARRIE AMBIENT" CDR (AOW 354)

One more rework of Donaggio's Carrie score, this time done in a deep slow-motion ambient style.  This is probably my favorite of the three reworks I've done for Carrie, an immersive and vaguely melodic long-form piece of endlessly unfurling ambient textures, oceanic, minimalist, and extremely dense.
Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $10 ppd. in the United States, $26 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "CARRIE REVISITED" CDR (AOW 353)

Another rework of Pino Donaggio's Carrie score, this time done in a scathing, electric, intensely psychedelic harsh noise style.  Carrie is most definitely a Brian De Palma film in that it features some incredible violence, and I felt it suitable to honor that aesthetic with a piece more indebted to that aspect of the film.  This rework should please fans of my older soundtrack reworks-this is very much in the vein of those earlier releases, with lots of destroyed melodies and torrents of distortion erupting forth from everywhere.
Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $10 ppd. in the United States, $26 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "CARRIE: A REINTERPRETATION" 3CDR (AOW 348)

Gorgeous, lush three disc rework of Pino Donaggio's score for Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film CarrieCarrie belongs to the school of better Stephen King film adaptations, alongside Kubrick's The Shining, Cronenberg's The Dead Zone, and Carpenter's Christine, and Donaggio's score is equally expert, a barrage of deep orchestral anxiety that perfectly reflects the growing inner turmoil, anger, and desperation of the film's protagonist.
My rework is deeply melodic, shot through with all manner of ghostly melodies and echoes, very much in the Tim Hecker vein of atmospheric sound.  I find it quite beautiful, a fine counterpoint to the violence and humiliation that characterize the film.
Packaged in a DVD case and released in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $20 ppd. in the United States, $36 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

Friday, January 1, 2016

SHE WALKS CROOKED "A DRIFT UPON THE NIGHT" 6CDR SET (AOW 338)

A massive and incredibly caustic set of epic-length HNW pieces from She Walks Crooked, here working in a more aggressive and depressing mode than I've heard from the project.  Those looking for severity and unrelenting WALL horror will not be disappointed by the work here, as Scott has created an uncompromisingly brutal suite of intense and gargantuan noise slabs that will completely obliterate the mind of any listener.  Composed under considerable personal duress, these six walls reflect a difficult moment in their creator's life, an outburst of depression and anger that stands as one of the most caustic sets of HNW i've heard.  Very honored to be releasing this through AOW; for me, this is very much one of the new modern benchmark releases of HNW.  "Winter's Abandon/Nothing Will Ever Change," the final disc of the set, is one of those instant classic walls for me, up there with Clive Henry's "Absolute End" in terms of pure black-hole devastation.
Packaged as six separate albums housed in DVD cases, each with their own imagery/artwork (this is really one of the loveliest AOW sets to date, as well.)  Released in a limited edition of 10 hand-numbered copies.  $40 ppd. in the United States, $53 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "CAROL: A REINTERPRETATION" 14CDR SET (AOW 346)

My rework of Carter Burwell's score to Todd Haynes' period story of fleeting moments, agonizing yearning, and the intense power of true, electric connection, Carol.  As always with Burwell's work, there is a beautiful sense of restraint and longing present in the music, tethered to a glassinine and fragile beauty.  My rework of the score is presented as a set of 12 EP length compositions (each between 9 and 60 minutes) that take Burwell's haunting textures and melodies and transform them into stagnant, troubling, deep oceans of unctuous drone.
The soundtrack rework proper is 12 discs, packaged in an oversize DVD case, with an additional 2 CD set of "Coda" pieces packaged in a fold-over cover and housed in a clear plastic bag.
Released in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $60 ppd. in the United States, $73 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "FALLING DOWN: A REINTERPRETATION" 10CDR + DVD-R SET (AOW 343)

Lengthy rework of the soundtrack to one of my very favorite films, Joel Schumacher's Falling Down.  I saw this back in 1993 when it originally was released and it's been a fave ever since; having just written a paper on it for school, I feel its lost none of its incendiary or melancholic power.  As poignant an examination of the enervating, withering effects of capitalist modernity as can be offered, Falling Down serves as a bitter warning against unfettered social and economic "progress," and as a perfect diagnosis of the crippling malaise that permeates the very nature of being in the world.  As Freud wrote in Civilization and its Discontents, "reality is untenable,"; regressing into neurotic behaviors offers one of the only salves against life's unending difficulty.
The soundtrack to Falling Down is a masterful exercise in tense and ominous drones by James Newton Howard; in working with his score I have sought to preserve that tension and elongate it.  The rework is 10 discs of the score in drone mode, with an HNW "totality" recording of the film's audio track to finish it off.
Packaged in 11 separate DVD cases, utilizing imagery from and ephemera associated with the film.  Released in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $100 ppd. in the United States, $113 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com