tape loop orchestra

In A Lonely Place

**Gatefold jacket contains A2 poster, 12" x 12" insert and CD copy, itself housed in die-cut sleeve with individual insert plus sachet holding download code redeemable from the label, and some crushed cloves. Hand-numbered edition of 300** Finally, after years of coaxing, Andrew Hargreaves commits his Tape Loop Orchestra to vinyl for "the noir at heart". Over the course of some four CD albums and singles TLO's grainy, slow-spooling soundscapes have come to inhabit a special place in the collections of home listeners from Tokyo to Bacup. For his first vinyl edition, he apparently takes inspiration from three lines of dialogue from the titular Humphrey Bogart 1950 classic, reflecting "a descent from glittery surface tension to sinister murky depth" in his music's long-running themes of decay and solitude, and most poignantly echoing the film's "dive from romantic optimism into malevolent violence." Of course, the violence isn't literal - there's no power noise finales - but the atmosphere makes for a deeply heavy-hearted yet cathartic experience whose creeping subtlety and finely woven metanarrative can be as crushing, euphoric or involving as you'll allow. Using modified 4-track and walkman loop, the recording and subsequent editing took place over three months, yielding three extended pieces of glacially paced, sepia-toned harmonic drift layering wilting strings against barren, mossy backdrops where we'd imagine projections of Gloria Grahame and Bogart to play out scenes every bit as heart-rending as the music. Packaged with design and artwork from fellow Moteer man, Craig Tattersall and close friend Alice Clarke, plus a sensitive master by James Plotkin, this record is destined to be adored by his TLO's cult following and more.