2008 year-end L'animaux Tryst update: CURSILLISTAS' MAIA MAIESTAS CASSETTE SERIES, THE FINAL HAUNT First things first:

l-t-(f)-r 018: CURSILLISTAS' Maia Maiestas cassette series The explanation is fully here, but here's the short-form typed version: once a day for the 31 days of May 2008, Cursillistas sat down before a cassette recorder and improvised a 20-minute performance onto a white c-20 cassette tape. These master tapes were then hand-painted by Dawn Marna, and packaged in or with items found throughout the course of that day. These 31 master tapes are now on sale in the most limited of editions - one of one - each hand painted and packaged uniquely to match the unique performance captured on each tape. The tapes are not going up auction-style, but because there is only one copy available of each tape it's a strict first-come, first-served deal. Limit is one per customer, so if you're interested in more than one tape, please rank them in the order in which you'd like them - in the event your first choice has already sold, you will receive your #2, and so on. The price is $15 US or $18 Worldwide, postage paid. If we're shipping your tape with your Tryst Haunt 7"s the price is $13. There are images, explanations, and sound samples (1.5 minutes from each side of each tape) online here - just click on the date to open a page with images and streaming audio. Once you know what tape you want, email lanimaux@gmail.com with your ranked list and we'll give you further instructions.

And other business: Things didn't go quite as planned, and the FINAL Tryst Haunt 7" set is coming out about six months late. Thanks to all subscribers for your patience... the time has almost come! But, as it gets dangerous to ship stuff around the Winter Solstice holidays, with under three weeks left till 2009 we're gonna put all shipments on hold until January 2nd. Subscribers, your appreciated patience will be rewarded with a free copy of: *****NOTE: THE "SLUMBER BENEATH THE LEAVES" CASSETTE HAS BEEN RECALLED, AND IS NOT AVAILABLE. APOLOGIES FOR THE WEIRDNESS AND INCONVENIENCE. PLEASE GET IN TOUCH AT LANIMAUX@GMAIL.COM FOR MORE INFO****

and those final Tryst Haunt 7"s for your consideration: LTH 710: ghq's "requiem for bhopal" this brooklyn all-star duo of marcia bassett (zaimph, hototogisu, double leopards, zaika) and steve gunn (check the solo digitalis cd sundowner) have been killing it on releases on time-lag, three-lobed, not not fun and others since their debut in 2005. the extended-playing 45 (six minutes on each side) finds ghq hitting that bliss-drift stride, with droned-out atmospheres of guitar layers soothing your headspace into a fully-conscious trance. occasional vocals just barely peak through the blanket, and there's definitely enough noise to remind you this ain't just about good vibes. black 7" vinyl record is held in a black art paper sleeve, with gold-ink offset printing on the back and a paste-on full-color cover. limited edition hand-numbered to 300; embossed for authenticity. LTH 711: vollmar's "new best friend b/w flood punch & holy blessing" justin vollmar's recordings often sound wonderfully and pleasantly small-scale; they begin with gentle strums like a feathered wing brushing a rusted-out six-string, soon joined by the fragile voice of a reluctant singer who's got only one person's ear in mind. occasionally calling to mind lo-fi songwriters like oldham and elverum, vollmar's songs are focused on the intimate and intricate, and recently his presentation has become fleshed out with full-band-type arrangements - modest drums, mini-synths and warm electric guitars in service to the songs. this 7" single presents alternate, more pared-down versions of three songs from his upcoming tell the dirt lp. black 7" record held in a tri-fold chipboard sleeve, in-house screenprinted on front and back, with full-color paste-on photo on front and a hand-written note on the third fold. limited edition, hand-numbered to 300, with embossed dust sleeves. LTH 712: elephant micah's "in midnight b/w ocean floor" as consistently great a songwriter as we've had this decade, elephant micah's joe o'connell is always affecting and almost unbelievably right-on, with a subtle vocal delivery, modest home-tracked recording fidelity, and slight country-western touches. which is what makes this 7" release so intriguing - this is elephant micah interpreting two songs written by friends of his (time and temperature & microwave background), and they are his most recently-recorded works. as expected, elephant micah truly makes these songs his own through no subtle re-interpretation. synth tones, backwards noise guitar, and even a trumpet solo set these songs apart from both their original versions and elephant micah's past work, and yet joe's voice and vision comes through as accurate as always. befitting the "recycling" theme of the songs, this black 7" record comes packaged in discarded 12" LP sleeves, which have been cut down to 7" jacket size, and then in-house screenprinted over with the release info. limited edition, hand-numbered to 300. As always, these are available as a three-record set, bound with hemp twine, for $24 US, $28 World. BUT, the good news is that if you've held out on buying the full 12-record subscription until now, the original price included shipping for four separate packages. These twelve records will ship together media mail in the US, so if you're a new subscriber and want all twelve records, you can have 'em for $65 total. Worldwide, it's $85. If you're a US customer and you prefer to have your records go Priority Mail and insured, it'll still be the original $75 for all twelve. Email me if interested - I will put up new Paypal buttons on the site when I have the chance.

A quick update: *Contrary to the rumours, this site did not live-blog the final US Presidential debate last night. Sorry for the confusion. *The Summer 2008 Tryst Haunt 7"s are coming along... still. I can at least promise that it won't be Winter yet by the time you subscribers receive them. We're looking at mid-November if all goes well. And to thank you subscribers for your patience, you'll get a secret present with your final shipment. *The L'animaux Tryst website had a slight update yesterday, with the order and upcoming pages updated to reflect most recent changes. We only have about 5 copies of the "Expanses Growing" cassette from Sloow Tapes left, so order soon if you're interested. Quantities are also very limited for the Bad Bus #2 & 8 (Back Hoe) 3"cdr (co-released with Digitalis in an edition of 75 - we only have 15 copies left). As always, shipping is included in the prices, so you can email me at lanimaux(at)gmail(dot)com if you want to combine shipping on multiple items. That will usually knock a couple bucks off your total. *Expect the next big update in November, when we will reveal: the final Tryst Haunt 45s (along with that secret bonus release), the Maia Maiestas cassette series from Cursillistas and friends, and pre-order details for our first full-length 12" vinyl and CD releases from Cursillistas and Tempera. *If you're in the Portland area, come out to some L'animaux shows: Sunday Oct. 19th - CURSILLISTAS Longfellow Kucz (formerly "Garm"; member of Visitations with assistance from Thee Planets' King) Dead Western (from Cali) Snowblink (Canada!) @ Strange Maine, 578 Congress St., Portland, ME 8:00pm, free but $5 suggested donation for travelers, all ages. Sunday Oct. 26th - CURSILLISTAS, opening for: Castanets (awesome) & Dylan Metrano & Paper Birds (members of Tigersaw & South China/Brown Bird) @ Meg Perry Center, 644 Congress St., Portland, ME 8:00pm, $6, all ages.

L'animaux Tryst UPDATE, June 2008: BIG BLOOD & VISITATIONS, PRISMA/DRONA PARVA, AND THE NORTH SEA/CORSICAN PAINTBRUSH 7"s IN THE (much-delayed) SPRING 2008 TRYST HAUNT!

"It's been a long time comin'". Illnesses, uprootings, and numerous pressing & production delays have all led to this: a two-months-late Spring installment of the Tryst Haunt Series. Yes, it's now officially Summer. But they're all the better for the extra time spent on them. All the packages are beautiful, and these scans don't nearly do justice to what these things look and feel like in "real" life.


We present:

LTH 707: visitations & big blood's "'lectric 'lashes"
in the true spirit of the occasion, southern maine's outerworldly psych-folk beacons visitations and big blood decide to forgo the concept of the "split" release and instead launch forth into a mindbending collaborative effort. the bands are not new to performing together: they've toured together and have even backed each other up under various names. but this release marks the first physical release by their combined forces, and, unbelievably enough, is big blood's first vinyl release ever. the ease with which the bands complement each other is astounding - five clear voices reaching together to guide the record through a buzz-guitar singalong, a breathless pastoral folk tune, a chugging nightmare rock-dirge, and a sweetly-lighthearted vocal exercise. this 33rpm 7" record contains four tracks in a 14-minute official runtime, but will play forever if you let it. in addition, the record comes with a bonus cd-r of tracks from the late-night jam session that pre-dated the recording sessions for the 7", as well as the four tracks from the 7" itself in digital form. a one-of-a-kind package, with each record sleeve offset printed with the bands' artwork in dark blue ink on colorful, individually hand-painted sheets of heavy art paper. embossed, hand-numbered limited edition of 300 record/cd-r sets.

LTH 708: prisma & drona parva's "best buds" 7"
the two spectral ladies of prisma mark their debut release with this 7" split with drona parva. prisma has been performing the quietest shows in and around portland for a couple years now, mixing softly echoing vocals with flute drones, only the gentlest plucking of various stringed instruments, and the occasional analog noise rumble. their a-side track resonates with beautiful restraint and delicacy; the stunning debut all of us entranced by their live show have hoped for. on the b-side, drona parva--the long-running solo project of time-lag records' nemo bidstrup--turns in a blissed-out muti-tracked free-flowing guitar composition. trance-inducing acoustic plucks and strums eventually give way to shimmering waves of fuzz guitar until the whole thing becomes impossibly beautiful. the minimal packaging for the record complements the gentle touch of the recordings held within: the 45rpm 7" record is a custom, slightly-marbled avocado green color with a yellow-green mandala-design center-label. the record is held in a semi-transparent vellum sleeve that has been hand-punched on the corners, giving a soft mask to the striking colors on the record itself, and hand-numbered to 300.

LTH 709: the north sea's "nikolette (reborn)" b/w corsican paintbrush's "under storm skies"
anyone familiar with the extensive north sea discography is aware of brad rose's keen ability to mix it up between eastern-tinged folk instrumentals and more straightforward strummers, which usually feature rose's classic low-in-the-mix mumble-drunk vocals and charmingly loose playing. "nikolette (reborn)" finds him revising a beautiful, quivering folk song from 2007's baby blue bones cd (mymwly) with the more-confident-than-ever vocals now at the forefront, and an army of acoustic strings and hand percussion backing this boxtop prophet's hymn. corsican paintbrush's contribution follows suit, foregrounding eden hemming rose's soft, lilting vocal melody and some rhythm-keeping strums while keeping a lush, hazy swell of drones and cave-echo vocals as the backdrop. equally ethereal and dusty, like 4AD dream-pop marred by dirt under fingernails and ash from the campfire turning cheeks black. black 7" vinyl record has a hand-stamped center label, and comes packaged in a textured black art paper sleeve with flower petal inclusions, with line-drawings and stamped titles in white ink, and an embossed screenprinted insert featuring liner notes and a topographic street map of tulsa. limited edition hand-numbered to 300.

THE SPRING 2008 TRYST HAUNT (THE ABOVE THREE 7" RECORDS):

USA - $24, SHIPPING INCLUDED

WORLDWIDE - $28, SHIPPING INCLUDED

The first two editions of the Tryst Haunt Series are still available, as are full subscriptions for this year's twelve 7" records (still to come: GHQ, Vollmar, and Elephant Micah in September). Please visit the new "work-in-progress" label website at http://www.lanimauxtryst.com/order.htm for more information and to order.

Finally, it pains me to announce this, but the Tryst Haunt Series will go on indefinite hiatus after the Summer 2008 installment. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which being that I've gotten the itch to start focusing on album-length vinyl releases for our artists. Please feel free to email me at lanimaux (at ) gmail (dot) com with any questions and I'll try to clarify.

Kelly Nesbitt, and Tassel CD-Rs are now sold out at the label, as are all copies of the Cursillistas Fleece Face cassette in the distro. Please try Time-Lag and Tomentosa for out-of-print LT(f)R discs and tapes. [note: even if items are not listed on the "distro" section of Time-Lag's site, they still may have some copies available. Just ask!] There are still a few copies left of the Robert Stillman's Horses CD-R/DVD-R set, $12 US or $14 worldwide. Email lanimaux(at)gmail(dot)com to order. Apologies for the delay in getting the Winter 2008 Tryst Haunt 7"s out to subscribers; as of today, all subscriptions placed before February have shipped out. Look for a late-April / early-May update to include the Spring 2008 Tryst Haunt 7"s from Big Blood/Visitations, Drona Parva/Prisma, and The North Sea/Corsican Paintbrush, as well as a new 3"cdr from Bad Bus and maybe more! It may bear repeating that subscriptions are still available for the Tryst Haunt Series... twelve 7" records delivered to your door with the change of each season. To order: Tryst Haunt Series (full year), in the US: $75 (shipping included)

Tryst Haunt Series (full year), Worldwide: $90 (shipping included)

Autumn 2007 Haunt: Bad Bus/Tempera, Cursillistas, Lightning Strike Lightning US: $24

World: $28

Winter 2008 Haunt: Bird Microphone, White Light/Barry Burst, The Red F/Sarah Ramey US: $24

World: $28

Each set of records comes bound together with matching edition numbers in handmade, offset, screenprinted, and/or letterpressed sleeves, embossed for authenticity, limited to 300 copies. Lots of stuff done by hand on these, and they've been getting rave reviews from The Wire, Diskant, Electric Voice Phenomenon, Foxy Digitalis, and Animal Psi, so it's about time to snatch up a subscription before they're gone. Email lanimaux@gmail.com with any questions!

winter 2008 pre-orders for kelly nesbitt, robert stillman's horses, and the tryst haunt 7" series volume 2.

Available for pre-order, immediately, to ship February 19th:


l-t-(f)-r 016: Kelly Nesbitt's Beaks That Could Smile CD-R
in which the dust settled on the antique photo album is blown, revealing all manner and layers of americana therein. kelly nesbitt has been known around town for years as a performance artist and folksinger with one ear in the frontier gothic folk/country ballad tradition and the other in a delightfully skewed avant-garde psychedelic realm, and on this album--her official debut--the two sides harmonize on a dusty spacetrip to places both hauntingly familiar and invitingly alien. it's a stunningly humble, graceful lo-fi world where a kazoo solo is a fine replacement for a guitar solo, and where perfectly-left answering machine messages deserve just as much appreciation as perfectly-delivered gospel-voiced folk songs.

running time: 60 minutes
tracklist:
01. wishy washy
02. glorified renter
03. kelly goes country
04. yes yes
05. gracias a la vida
06. think with your eyebrows
07. earbait #4
08. earbait #3
09. squeeze me calm
10. four track messages
11. beaks that could smile
12. dracula frizzi
13. tabloids
14. this island
15. earbait #1
16. yo yo ma

016 - "Beaks That Could Smile " cdr - $10
5"cdr: white-top cdr with handstamped bird.
packaging: full-color copy of collage and hand-drawn art, pasted onto chipboard arigato pak and sanded till soft.
insert: fold-out 8x10" xeroxed sheet with typed and handwritten text, and bird stamp
edition: limited, 50 copies.

l-t-(f)-r 017: Robert Stillman's Horses' Three Early Maine Films
in which nostalgia is gleaned from the parlour and the ocean; the fairground and the midnight air, in the form of moving postcards and one-man piano rags. using just two hands and two feet to play electric piano, a complete drumkit, nylon-stringed guitar, and tape fragments as though he were a full whiskey-soaked turn-of-the-20th-century band, robert stillman's music is transportive and transformative in any setting, but perhaps most effective as presented here: as the thoughtful soundtrack to archival silent documentary film footage of early 1900's maine loggers, fishermen, and lobstermen. the films and musical accompaniment are suspenseful, reverent, and playful - stillman's score perfectly matching the documentation of maine worklives with a veritable documentary of the american parlour sound.

cd running time: 28 min.
cd tracklist:
01 - 08. logging in maine
09. trout fishing, rangeley lakes
10. glorious (drawing a lobster pot)
11. fox n me
12. dmp chorale

dvd running time: 22 min.
dvd tracklist:
01. logging in maine
02. trout fishing, rangeley lakes
03. drawing a lobster pot


017 - "3 Early Maine Films" DVD-R / CDR - $12
5"cdr: white-top cdr with handcut stamp in red ink.
dvdr: white-top dvdr with handcut stamp in red ink.
packaging: cream-colored heavy cotton paper gatefold sleeve, with black ink linoleum-cut print on the cover and typed liner notes on the inside and back cover.
edition: limited, 50 copies.


and mailing #2 of the Tryst Haunt Series, Winter 2008:

LTH 704: bird microphone's "memory songs ep"

bird microphone follows up last year's paper mines split with cursillistas with this collection of original songs and appalachian child ballads. fitting six songs onto this 45rpm 7" record, bird mic. mixes her trademark dulcimer plucks and cut-up bell percussion clacks with a new focus on voice. love songs that aren't afraid to expose the dissonance; traditionals on the a-side, originals on the b. preview here. black 7" vinyl record with center labels hand-stamped on the A and hand-drawn/colored on the B-side, held in a heavy off-white cotton paper sleeve, with double-vision two-color screenprinted covers and an offset-printed back. hand-numbered to 300, and embossed.



LTH 705: white light's "saraswati" b/w barry burst's "rabies"

ian paige's white light project turns in a graceful, drony and jangly piece of classic lo-fi psych-pop, with a subtle galloping rhythm track keeping the good vibes in line. swirls of phasing synth quietly sneak up on the sweet vocals and lead guitars until all ride off on the figurative elephant in the sky. meanwhile, perennial favorite barry burst crashes that elephant back to the earth dirt and kicks up a party that could only be described as bollywood on acid. tablas and a host of handclaps provide the rhythmic thrust, while eastern strings and a chorus of singers (a multi-tracked barry) parade the blissfully gone love-fest through town. black 7" vinyl record with hand-stamped center labels held in a tri-fold die-cut chipboard sleeve, letterpressed and screenprinted in a multicolor design, with screenprinted chipboard insert. hand-numbered to 300.

LTH 706: the red f's "fingers" b/w sarah ramey's "magic" & "jane"

here we have a couple names new to the l'animaux tryst family, but no doubt familiar to those in the southern-maine know, here presented in split-single form as the official solo debut for both artists. the red f is the solo project of phantom buffalo guitarist tim burns, and there are shadows of his group's gentle and sweetly skewed indie-pop on "fingers". but pared down to just a voice, a creaky acoustic guitar, and the reverbed ghosts in the room, burns turns out one of the most affecting folk ballads we've heard in some time. on the b-side, sarah ramey (lead vocals and guitar for seekonk) presents two similarly pared-down tracks of acoustic strings and double-tracked vocals. the incredible intimacy with which she delivers each half-whispered word and melody alludes to warmth like the crackle of a woodfire on the coldest night. black 7" vinyl record with hand-stamped center labels, held in a heavy white cotton paper sleeve, with offset-printed art with watercolor washes applied by tim burns' hand. hand-numbered to 300 and embossed.


Again, as you know, these three records are available as a set for $24 in the US or $28 overseas, or as part of the Tryst Haunt Series year-long subscription (twelve 7" records total, three with the change of every season) for $75 US or $90 worldwide.

Remember, all CD-R prices include shipping to the US, so worldwide customers will add a couple bucks and we'll knock a couple bucks off for multiple orders.

And in other news, L'animaux Tryst now has a bit of a mailorder distro. This is for items released by other labels that feature L'animaux-related artists. So, as you can imagine, this update includes:

CURSILLISTAS' WASP STINGS THE LAST BITTER FLAVOR CD (Digitalis) $12
CURSILLISTAS' FLEECE FACE Cassette (30 min.) (Open Range Records) $7

Fleece Face is sold out at Open Range, and I've only got a few copies left, so get in touch soon. As always, email lanimaux(at)gmail(dot)com to inquire about availability before sending funds.

update: all but tassel cd-r and tryst haunt 7" series are sold out. new releases in a couple weeks, pre-orders begin next week with new kelly nesbitt cdr and robert stillman dvdr/cdr releases, as well as info on the winter 2008 set of tryst haunt 7"s from bird microphone, white light/barry burst, and the red f/sarah ramey.