From the Archives #11
M. Sage
Fuubutsushi, the quartet of M. Sage, Patrick Shiroishi, Chris Jusell, and Chaz Prymek, have recently released their latest full-length, meridians, on Sage’s Cached Media, so I thought it’d be a good time to dig up this mix that he made for us back in 2013. He’s since risen to some prominence, with critically acclaimed solo records for RVNG, Geographic North, Moon Glyph, Florabelle, and his own labels Patient Sounds and most recently Cached Media.
We also talked about Sage and the origins of Fuubutsushi a bit in my episode with Patrick Shiroishi. In 2019, Sage had released a work by a nonet of Shiroishi’s on his now-defunct label Patient Sounds. Shiroishi told me how he found himself unable to play sax for several months during the 2020 lockdown, but collaborating with M. Sage in a new remote ensemble helped reinvigorate his creativity. The result was Fuubutsushi, a quartet consisting of Sage, Shiroishi, Chris Jusell, and Chaz Prymek, who ultimately recorded one seasonally-inspired record per quarter over the course of a year, conveniently collected in a charming boxset as Shiki, released on Sage’s new label, Cached Media. Shiroishi occasionally sings in Japanese, and subtly incorporates samples from documentaries of Japanese-Americans recounting their experiences in the camps. The music varies tremendously across their recordings, but the affect is generally soothing and contemplative, a looser, contemporary American take on the ECM aesthetic. In addition to critical praise from outlets as diverse as Pitchfork and Men’s Health Magazine. Meridians finds the group more developed as a unit, having since met and performed together in person several times, adding a great fluency to their ongoing collective dialogue.
M. Sage presents HALF-SPEED FLOURISH is one of my favorite mixes in the 100+ in the Lost Children series (as I discuss in the ACL episode of the podcast), but somehow it has only 300 combined plays. Rectify that immediately and run that shit up. So I’ve collected here some posts featuring M. Sage, including this mix, an early tape of his, reviews of some later albums, and the final Patient Sounds sampler. Happy Listening.
LCNL 036: M. SAGE presents Half-Speed Flourish
M. SAGE has given us something special, a unique mix of half-speed orchestral flourishes that reveals aspects of his aesthetic approach as a mix that can be enjoyed purely on its own terms.
LCNL 036: M. Sage presents Half-Speed Flourish (original mixcloud)
MINI-INTERVIEW
So what’s going on here? Set this up for us.
For a while now, I have been using old orchestra LPs as source material for my recordings. One of my favorite tricks is to record snippets of the introduction flourishes from old big-band era tracks and cut them up into sample arrangements. The giant sweeping chords that open a lot of the music from this era really captivates me…because these intros are usually far more melodically complex then the rest of the song that follows.
I have an old Califone 1420K record player that has a really worm vintage solid-state tone, and the table can run at 16rpm. I jacked the table into my computer, and recorded the opening flourishes from some tracks. I also have a few of these saved, in my base of sounds, that I scooped from AM radio a while back. I have used several of these tracks in M. Sage recordings, primarily “a sunday kind of love” which is the root sample for “prairie bell” from my cassette “Lux Collapsing.” The rest are a mystery.
Tell us about yourself. Who is M. Sage?
I am from Fort Collins, Colorado. I am currently preparing to release a new double LP of material I recorded and composed with some friends over the last year. The album comes out this December. I also have tons of other recordings available through Patient Sounds, the label I own and operate. We have released 45+ tapes and have our first 2 vinyl releases coming this winter.
Learn more at his site, and hear more of his sound collages at his soundcloud page.
TRACKLIST
skitch henderson – moonlight in vermont
michael legrand – song from moulin rouge
korngold / phil pop orch – the constant nymph
perkins parish / the heavenly voices with wally scott and his orchestra – stars fell on alabama
griffes / phil pops orch* – the white peacock
unknown (record label damaged)
unknown (record label damaged)
performer unknown – autumn in rome
unknown (scooped from am radio)
claude thornhill orchestra + fran warren – a sunday kind of love
M. Sage ~ Data in the Details (2014)
Regular readers of ACL might remember this excellent mix from last year, Half-Speed Flourish by Matthew Sage. He played back old orchestral LPs at 16rpm, recording the result and mixing them together, giving us a window into his creative process and a closer look at the kinds of raw material he deconstructs to form his soundscapes as M. Sage. I really appreciated Sage’s creative approach to that mix, but it wasn’t necessarily representative of other aspects of his work. Over the last few years he’s released a steady supply of music through his own tape label, Patient Sounds, as well as on other labels. His work as M. Sage conjures micro-worlds of sound, honing in on the nuances and textures of field-recordings. The listener’s attention drifts between the multiple layers of sound, enveloped by a welcoming sense of disorientation.
M. Sage’s latest is Data in the Details, a tape that presents an interesting study in variation. Just as his mix granted a new perspective on his soundscape works, this C30 presents itself as two-sides of the evolution of M. Sage. “Data in the Details (heads up extended edit)” is an un-rushed exploration guided by its source material, its largely unprocessed and lo-fi field-recordings playing off minimal electronic tones that tend to drift in stutters and pulses. It’s B-Side, “Data in the Details (mover isuzu dub edit),” offers a surprisingly upbeat exploration of the same material, this time driven by a tropical rhythm. The same elements are present- the lo-fi recordings, minimal electronics, dub techniques- but the steady rhythm grants new emphasis.
Still primarily an explorations of textural soundscapes, Sage’s work has become increasingly interested in rhythm. This dub edit is seemingly something of a point of demarcation. I wouldn’t be surprised is his his next release is a full-on beat tape, though certainly still defined by the idiosyncrasies of field-recordings and careful attention to texture.
Following labels is one of my primary means of discovering new music, so there is nothing I appreciate more than a well-curated label with a coherent aesthetic. Sage’s own label, Patient Sounds, takes this approach and so its no surprise to find him appearing on labels with similar commitments. Geographic North, an excellent label based in Atlanta, is a good fit for M. Sage, with a diverse catalog that still manages to project a recognizable identity. (Joseph Sannicandro)
Patient Sounds ~ STILL, waiting
“We’re still waiting, we’re still waiting, we’re still waiting, we’re still waiting …” This children’s chant launches the amusing new mixtape from Patient Sounds. “We’re waiting for everything,” they sing as a music box chimes over their boredom. We’ve all been there. Even if we’re too old to whine out loud, we’re still doing it inwardly.
Just look at that cover. That was me last week in the auto repair shop. But it might have been you at the doctor’s office, at the deli, or even at home, waiting for a page to load, a plumber to arrive, the power to come back on. As Tom Petty sings, “The waiting is the hardest part.” This collage was “specifically engineered to accompany & enrich indeterminate waiting.” And it certainly makes the time go faster. Dozens of artists appear, representing the Patient Sounds roster and more: Naps, M. Sage, Lake Mary, Hakobune, Francesco Covarino and more. There’s a chart to tell them apart, which helps a lot when the turnover is approximately one artist each minute. The timbres range from ambient to drone, with numerous electronic textures folded in; but the draw is the variety of samples: plates and dishes, the morning commuter train, a crying baby. We feel your pain.
There’s another kind of pain here as well: the pain of saying goodbye. This is the last Patient Sounds sampler. At the end of their tenth anniversary, the label will be closing its doors. Over the past decade, they’ve treated us to amazing albums from artists including Cinchel, Petrels, Glassine and Ian William Craig, to name a few. It’s been a great ride. But it’s also been a tough time for the industry, especially when it comes to cassettes, which produce a sense of nostalgia that is unfortunately greater than its overall sales. This bittersweet disc ~ the final sampler before a closing trio of tapes ~ is the epitome of patience, confronted by its opposite. If anything, Patient Sounds taught us to listen slowly, and now the Chicago label will practice what it has preached by riding slowly into the sunset.
We love the trombone in the 18th minute, followed by the field recordings and mournful strings of the 20th. A Mukqs track folds into a cappella singing from Warm Anna. We’re reminded of “Casey at the Bat.” Birds are squaring. Children are playing. But in Chicago, the curtains are being taken down. The office is being scrubbed, the last acoustic troubadour playing in the hallway. What begins as amusement ends as elegy. For all the talk about waiting, the time has gone too fast.
M. Sage writes, “As it is August, we are entering in the last days of our last summer as a label, and the first days of our last autumn. So many firsts and lasts here at the end of our run. Every thing feels momentous, like every grain of sand is a gold brick.” Want to say farewell, thank you, best wishes? There’s a concert tonight if you’re in town (where you can score a free CD!) and lots of tapes in the warehouse waiting like wide-eyed animals for someone to take them home. (Richard Allen)
M. Sage ~ Wants a Diamond Pivot Bright (Florabelle)
A direct and deeply collaborative response to the poetry of Wallace Stevens, Wants a Diamond Pivot Bright is M. Sage’s grand experiment in closing the gap and widening the network between sound and writing. After inviting 16 musicians to spend time with Wallace’s work and send arrangements, Sage added his own embellishments to the compositions, accompanying the results of his own interpretive project. As our own Richard Allen wrote in his review, “The music opens up the poems like the poems open up the world.” The procedural nature of the record adds multidimensionality to the original source, but also highlights the observational brilliance of Stevens’ work. (Josh Hughes)
M. Sage ~ Wants a Diamond Pivot Bright
M. Sage gathers a stellar collection of collaborators on Wants a Diamond Pivot Bright: Ned Milligan, Josh Mason, Hakobune and more. But the real star of the project is Wallace Stevens. Each track is inspired by and named for a line in one of his poems, and reading the full poems while listening to the music brings a keen pleasure. In this context, the contrast between indoor rustlings and outdoor beauty becomes the beckoning of “On the Surface of Things,” while playful percussion and guitar embody the line there is no pith in music, a line that one might not encounter without knowing the source. The music opens up the poems like the poems open up the world.
The bells of “To Sleep or Just to Lie There Still” are as lovely as the sound of wind chimes as one lies in bed, half-dreaming. Stevens’ poem continues, “Just to be there, just to beheld / That would be bidding farewell, bidding farewell.” Sage and Milligan present an aural form of contemplation common to ambient music, but shared with poetry. In like manner, “Valley Candle” is about a candle, but it’s not really about a candle, and the wind heard in the piece is not really the wind, but something comforting or foreboding, depending on the interpretation. To walk the line is difficult, but Sage and Patrick Shiroishi manage the balance.
“The Cat Forgotten in the Moon” is a lovely title, taken from “A Rabbit as King of the Ghosts.” One can imagine the animals, the fur, the grass, the sense that
The trees around are for you,
The whole of the wideness of night is for you,
A self that touches all edges
Age has encroached; time has accelerated; distractions have proliferated; as Stevens writes, a horror of thoughts that suddenly are real. Already in the first hundred flakes of snow we have lost our sense of poetry. As Sage and Chris Jussell profer, “We Must Endure Our Thoughts All Night, Until,” quoting “Man Carrying Thing,” without defining what the thing is. The time of year has grown indifferent, writes Stevens, and will not relent. But as Stevens combines melancholy with medicine, Sage and Lee Noble decorate “The Mildew of Summer” with birdsong.
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Over and over, Stevens observes, asks questions, answers them, rephrases them, steps back and observes again. This is the manner in which Sage approaches his music. Is there a more ambient title than “On the Manner of Addressing Clouds?” Wisps and puffs operate as reflections of both word and interpretation, honoring the “speech like music so profound / They seem an exhalation without sound.” The constant presence of nature in Steven’s poems is the backdrop of ambience; the pairing is well made. In like manner, it is fitting to quote the final words of the album’s final (instrumental) poem:
Space-filled, reflecting the seasons, the folk-lore
Of each of the senses; call it, again and again,
The river that flows nowhere, like a sea.
(Richard Allen)