SAIL014

Enter LP Digital Download Code Here

"Prayer" by Niao - LP, CD, digital download



Niao consists of vocalist, sampler, and synth composer George Glikerdas and percussionist Gordon Spencer Blaetz based in NJ and MA. Glikerdas holds a B.A. in music composition and performance from Bard College, NY. Niao's 2009 debut album titled Clenched Fist garnered substantial media attention for its simple yet powerful technique using minimalist, poly-rhythmic sensibilities while simultaneously producing uniquely "possessive, meditative, spiritual" elements.

Prayer features material that is equally powerful, yet more condensed than Clenched Fist. With Prayer, Glikerdas and Spencer-Blaetz created a tighter, more upbeat, groovier and trance-inducing sound than on Clenched Fist, while also maintaining its more meditative moments. Influenced by spiritual music traditions around the world, the sounds produced within Prayer are a transnational fusion and experimentation creating a sound that is refreshing, re-imagining traditional notions of sense of place and identity formation. Throughout Prayer the songs are based around a repetitive sample, sound or rhythm, within which the melodies are written. The minimalist quality is inherent to the meditative element that each song produces.

All songs by George Glikerdas. LP w/ digital download coupon $10 plus shipping. CD $7 plus shipping. $4 Digital download at niao.bandcamp.com


contact: sailingrecs@gmail.com

Tracklist:
1 Unknown Visitor
2 Sway
3 Aman Aman
4 Catharsis
5 Computer Keyboard Oil
6 Prayer
7 Devotional Dance

SAIL011

"Clenched Fist" by Niao CD-R



Warm analog synth electronics, 6 long songs crafted to be realized and performed with three other people: Ben Lorber, Gordon Spencer-Blaetz, and Austin Julian. Pentatonic blues runs on the keyboard, hypnotic rhythms and melodies accompanied by toms, tabla, cymbals and tambourine (the only percussion). Religious and ritual-like vocals of the night that serve a prominent role throughout the album. No words, only drones and simple syllables like EY AH OO WAH. Dream loops that linger like a forgotten foundation.

Praise for Niao’s 2009 Clenched Fist

“The trio does indeed deliver the goods – sparse arrangements, thick tribal dissonance, and a sinister vibe. These are campfire songs for the possibly possessed. Great stuff.”
- The Decibel Tolls, August 2009

“…..don’t take that ‘animal’ part lightly - despite its continuous vocal presence, the non-verbal, vowel heavy coos are those of a majestic, primal and pre-human beastliness. I could go as far as to say ‘tribal’, but I think that only gets you halfway there…All together it is an interesting, weird little album that definitely has me excited about the prospect of more Niao goodness in the future.” – Forest Gospel, October 2009

All songs written by George Glikerdas. Released in 2009. Edition of 100. $7 plus shipping for CD-R or digital download for $5 at niao.bandcamp.com

contact: sailingrecs@gmail.com

SAIL012

"Etchings" by Ben Lorber CD-R

Track 6 "From Afar"


Ben Lorber is an amazing friend, musician, philosopher with the free spirit of a child in a bearded man's body. Lorber wrote "Etchings" in the summer of 2009 in the New York Hudson Valley. Over an hour long, what could be conceived as a double album, these 16 tracks take you on a journey through Lorber's world, interestingly mixing rhythmic blues guitar folk melodies with synthesized sounds. CD sleeve art by Ben Lorber. Released in 2009. Edition of 100. $7 plus shipping.

contact: sailingrecs@gmail.com

Tracklist:
1 Somebody
2 All That We Are
3 Smile
4 Almost...
5 Aaaahh
6 From Afar
7 Nothing
8 Knowing
9 Try It Again
10 Bzzzz
11 Peggy-O
12 Shhhh
13 Ooooom
14 Anger falls
15 It's Really All Me
16 Brother Of Light

SAIL009

Huaraches s/t CD-R

Track 7


Chants, vocal drones, no words, freedom, light, evolution, sometimes spatial, open, diffuse, other times rhythmically unified, interlocked, circular. One being the other's opposite. Syncopation, spontaneous. Hand drums, shakers, clinging glass bottles and cans. Tambourines, improvisation. This album is all about love and friendship, listening with an acute awareness, feeding off of the surroundings. No pretension, simple and subtle, yet all the more powerful and transcendent. Instrumentation centered around guitars and percussion. All free, spiritual and healing for the mind. Huaraches is Roberto Meza, George Glikerdas, and Gordon Spencer-Blaetz. Recorded fall/winter 2007. Cover drawing by Roberto Meza. Comes with a poem by Gordon on the experience. Spray-painted gold cd-rs. Edition of 100. $7 plus shipping. contact: sailingrecs@gmail.com

SAIL008

"Summer Showers" by Niao C46 (One-sided)

Total of 23 minutes, this tape has two long improvisations that rise and fall gradually, from one extreme to the other. Oscillating organ drones, infinite drum taps, mics thrown around, banging on metal garbage cans. Finger-picked electric guitar of freedom and nihilism but aware, driven, and composed at the same time. Music and photos by George Glikerdas. Yellow tapes. Released in 2008. $5 plus shipping. contact: sailingrecs@gmail.com

SAIL005

"Lyin' In My Bed" by Deep River

Track 5 "Two Tall Trees"


This album was recorded between february 2007 and january 2008. It is my first album that is pretty focused on words. Most of the songs are sort of "simple" I guess but it had to be intuitive. Solo four-track, all acoustic guitar with turkish percussion and flutes on the two instrumental songs. Some intense chanting. Scraps of metal. All songs written and recorded by George Glikerdas. Cover photo by Sydney Shen.

Edition of 100 CD-R's. Released in 2008. $7 plus shipping.
contact: sailingrecs@gmail.com

Tracklist:
1 Gills
2 Geese
3 Hiss and Hiss Silence
4 untitled pt. 1
5 Two Tall Trees
6 Gold
7 My Bed
8 untitled pt. 2
9 Feeling Warm

SAIL004

Sailing Records Interviews Jon Solomon

This in-depth interview features Jon Solomon, a thirty year dee-jay and record label entrepeneur of My Pal God Records and Comedy Minus One. This traces back Solomon's story with how he got involved with radio, recording live bands, releasing music, his epic, annual, 24-hour Christmas/Holiday show, and what the future of college radio holds. Released in 2007, about 30 pages. Photos by Sydney Shen. Edition of 30. $10 plus shipping. contact: sailingrecs@gmail.com

Solomon's personal website: http://keepingscoreathome.com/
and his label: http://www.comedyminusone.com/index.php/