Raccoons by Raccoons
Hal Rammel - single-string electric guitar, prepared sounds
Chris Rosenau - acoustic and electric guitar
Jon Mueller - drum set
"Raccoons was recorded over the course of two Friday evenings during the summer of 2000. We played in Hal's living room, a very large yet very comfortable space perfect for playing as well as recording. The acoustics lend themselves to the music so well. The recording was engineered to try to capture that environment and convey it to the listener. Using only a few microphones placed closely to the instruments, most of the sound was captured using condenser microphones, set up in various places around the room, depending on the instrumentation. The pieces were all performed and recorded live, with all of the sound from every instrument being captured by of all the microphones throughout the room, adding to the overall feel of space and spontaneity that we really enjoy about this record. Everything was fed into a digital eight track recorder, and mixed the same night without adding any outboard effects or studio "polishing" subsequent to the actual performance." - Chris Rosenau
"The single-string electric guitar I play on Raccoons is modeled after a Vietnamese single-string instrument called the dan bau. Although my approach differs considerably from conventional dan bau technique, both instruments feature a single string fixed to a flexible vertical arm perpendicular to the neck allowing wide variation in string tension across the pickup. The prepared sounds heard on Raccoons are pre-recorded to CD and mini-disc, allowing for spontaneous access to sounds otherwise unavailable in an improvised environment. Recordings of short wave radio signals, telephone bells resting on the head of a tympani, various homebuilt percussion devices, etc. are often subjected to several layers of processing as they are assembled for collective exploration." - Hal Rammel
'Raccoons' was originally released in 2000 by Crouton in an edition of 500 CDs.
Tracklist
| 1. | Arakun | 7:23 |
| 2. | Ursus Lotor | 7:20 |
| 3. | Ositos Lavadores | 4:44 |
| 4. | Procyon Lotor | 8:43 |
| 5. | Arathkane | 3:31 |
| 6. | Marapaches Bandidos | 5:06 |
| 7. | Arakunen | 12:51 |
Credits
Recorded and mixed by Chris Rosenau.
Cover stenciling and grommeting by Scott Kawczynski.
