released June 13, 2014

Side A - The Temple Bell Stops Side B - But The Sound Keeps Coming and Out Of The Flowers. Recorded at SOMA studios on April 21st, 2013 by The Norman Conquest. One take performances recorded without overdubs with the exception of an ARP 2600 Analog Synthesizer track by The Norman Conquest on But The Sound Keeps Coming. Out Of The Flowers was an improvisation with The Norman Conquest on the ARP. Source material for The Temple Bell Stops and But The Sound Keeps Coming recorded by me at home in Chicago and in the field. Chanting on The Temple Bell Stops by an unknown monk at Jogyesa Buddhist Temple in Seoul, South Korea. Additional contributions on But The Sound Keeps Coming by anonymous Cardinals, Nuthatches, Tufted Titmice, Woodpeckers and Blue-Jays in Hobart, Indiana; also Tree Frogs and Crickets at Hussy Lake, Michigan and Grasshoppers and Gold Finches at Clark and Pine Dune and Swale preserve in Gary, Indiana. Photograph by me, scanned and toned by James Luckett. Mastered by Matt Colton at Alchemy. Thanks to John Twells at Type, The Norman Conquest for recording and mixing and to Matt Christensen for recording numerous material for me that didn’t make it onto this album. Also, thanks to Brian Harding for loaning me his guitar, Matt for the home-made instruments, Donn Ha for the organ, Michelle and Jeehoon for sharing the iPad, and Young Sun Song and the Korean American Resource and Culture Center for the use of the Jing gong. Thanks to James for the photography help. Also, thank you Pramod Tummala for listening, for the feedback and for the encouragement. The song titles, The Temple Bell Stops But The Sound Keeps Coming Out Of The Flowers is a haiku poem by Matsuo Basho. This one’s for Jeehoon. -Mike (February 2014)
“There is all the time in the world for studying music, but for living there is scarcely any time at all. For living takes place each instant and that instant is always changing. The wisest thing to do is to open one’s ears immediately and hear a sound suddenly before one’s thinking has a chance to turn it into something logical, abstract, or symbolical. Sounds are sounds and men are men, but now our feet are a little off the ground.” -John Cage, from Juilliard Lecture