Howard Stelzer

coming next…

HS & Neil Campbell Their Crowning Achievement CDR (Triste Tropiques, Australia)
HS & Nerve Net Noise Untitled CD (Triste Tropiques, Australia)

out now!

Something to Do (Amplify 2020: Quarantine, US) is a short piece recorded for Jon Abbey/Erstwhile’s online-only festival, Amplify 2020: Quarantine. Obviously, most of the planet is stuck inside, avoiding close contact with other people. I’ve been taking the opportunity to listen to and make lots of music. The idea of the festival is to present work recorded since the pandemic began… so, very new music recorded in a relatively short amount of time. If I added up the hours this piece took me, it probably took as much time as any of my other music… but concentrated into a few days, rather than spread out over months. All tracks are free to stream and/or download.

Untitled (Droneuary 2020) is an EP of collaborative music by me and Drekka, released as part of Silber Media‘s digital-only Droneuary series. Like the rest of the series, this piece is available as a free download from the label’s Bandcamp page. I think it’ll also be on iTunes/Apple Music eventually.

Fever Song, a digital-only album recorded in secret over late Fall and Winter 2019 and unceremoniously released on Bandcamp on December 30th. The album was built from (among other things) recordings of the cooling towers of the Brayton Point Generating Station in Somerset, MA, being demolished, several acoustic instruments (woodwinds, percussion, strings), some everyday sounds captured while walking my dog and other elements too banal to mention. Oh, and cassette tapes of course. I started the composition, walked away from it temporarily (intending to return with fresh ears later), then contracted pneumonia and was knocked out of commission for several weeks. That was awful. As soon as my fever lifted, I was so grateful to be able to do the things I usually do (like being able to concentrate on a task for more than a few minutes at a go, or walk from one side of my house to the other, or carry on a conversation with my wife) that I returned to this album right away and ironed it out rather quickly. Maybe I’ll take it down and revise it later or maybe it’s finished as-is… I’m not sure. Until then, it’s available to stream or download from my Bandcamp. Get it before I change my mind.

Anathematization of the World Is Not an Adequate Response to the World 2xCDR (Chocolate Monk, UK). My latest solo tape composition, in the works for a year or so. It’s an album of songs… sort of. Peter Hope and Richard Youngs sing on a couple of tracks, I sing on a couple of tracks, and some actual instruments are played by Jesse Kudler, Frans de Waard, Jason Talbot and Le Quan Ninh. The gorgeous 1960’s-science-textbook design is by Edward Sol. Pick up a physical edition it from the label while they last or else get a digital version from my Bandcamp.