A delightful 20-minute EP by Oakland musician Raphi Gottesman and furthermore the PRELUDE to his upcoming full-length “The Clarity of Dawn” (TCOD) – published in early 2020 on tape by AOsmosis Records!

The 7-track EP consists of a live session, experimentations, variations, and with “Song of a Loving One” also features TCOD’s single release. This is a very enjoyable, diverting affair to lend your ear to for a many cycles…

= L I N E R N O T E S =

[1] NANTUCKET is featured on “The Clarity of Dawn” with additional trumpet played by Simon Beins. Both versions turned out to work very well in their own right and this EP was a welcome opportunity to publish both.

[2] NEEDLES, CA ⇒ Recorded as a preparation for a tour in 2014.

[3] SONG OF A LOVING ONE ⇒ Single release of Raphi’s forthcoming full-length “The Clarity of Dawn.” With piano/synth played by Yea-Ming Chen (Yea-Ming & The Rumours).

[4] MASSAUDA ⇒ “Massauda is our family’s closest friend. She was at my birth in Algiers and took part in raising me and singing to me. We moved to Cleveland when I was 2, but she would visit periodically. My mom handed me a cassette from one of these visits – we were on a road trip in Canada with her – and my parents made this tape of her singing. I decided to overdub guitar and follow her melody 30 years later.” – RG

[5] LOWELLS OF ORINDA ⇒ “I teach music lessons – for a while I was teaching a father and his son drums in their home. They had guitars and amps and distortion pedals – and what they wanted more than looking at books and exercises was to jam. We’d basically just have big metal jams and I think we all got better and louder and more intense each week. I recorded this by myself, but it’s a memento of my time teaching them.” – RG

[6] THE ANGELS LAID HIM AWAY ⇒ “I go through waves of listening to jazz. I’ll never really understand it or ‘get’ it fully, but it works it's way into my thing filtered through the usual mood swings I’m always in and out of.” – RG

[7] BLUE HAWAII ⇒ Originally recorded (amongst three other tracks) in 2017 for a Various Artist release on AOsmosis.

“His circular guitar layers and modal tunes take his style and approach to new levels that are only hinted at in his drumming. What stands out to me in the music is a distinct attentiveness to the balance between melody, space and unpredictable repetition.”
– Decoder Magazine

Until the release of TCOD in early 2020 have yourself some satisfyingly perplexing conversations with the voice that will not hold out its hand…

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[is as is]

This voice will not hold out its hand
sometimes it thinks it is a horse,
other times it is a very small
blade of grass and the horse
is riding over it, and there are
a hundred dark birds in the leafless trees.

Hear these naked oscillations
something like soft ashes
a man in the rain leans on his shovel

and mutters song doggone
same old blues, same old song
song doggone.

RG Barbs, 2017.

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