Melanie Velarde

Bez

— The cassette of Bez comes in an edition 125, hand-stamped cassette covers letter pressed by our faithful friends at Stumptown Printers in Portland, Oregon. [SOLD OUT]
— Each purchase includes a multi-format download redeemable via Bandcamp.

Notes
Tracklist
Notes

CAT #: THERE001
December 6, 2019

Melanie Velarde, keeper of TemporaryArchives and faithful stenographer of the world’s mysterious blur, returns with Bez, her latest reminiscence of sound.

Following her 2016 experience Parcel, the third installment in the Commend See series (a multi-disciplinary, site-inspired collaboration series overseen by our NYC storefront and community space), Bez first appeared as a continuous mix of all new and original material from Velarde for RVNG’s Rinse FM takeover in 2018. Long since extracted from the cloud, Bez reappears in freshly sequenced and expanded form for wider wanders.

Bez nods to the fragile majesty of Parcel, sifting through emotive sound relics sculpted, performed, lost and found by Velarde, then thread together improvisationally and often inconceivably. Her music conjures a warbled waltz, swaying to the dream time signatures of a buried cinematic score.

Take the woodblock bossa sway of “Another Para,” its joy manifested in Velarde’s accompanying video, which in true TemporaryArchives fashion transforms a capsule moment into an enlightening beam of ebullient childhood joy; or “Bez,” where vocal fragments murmur over swimming tones and a patient beat. Bez speaks to scenes deep in our subconscious either lived or dreamed, yet so full of soul we treat them as real.

Other songs of Bez sashay, as if bribed by a breeze; chirping cicadas and avians here, noodling loops and organs there. “Los” scatters formless energy waves over a bleating subterrain, “Mon” pulls us into a sweet and storied timeline, and “Tomorrow” ties up Bez’s yarn with an ode to possibility, somersaulting between grace and goof in toylike rhythm-melody before tumbling into a rainshower.

Melanie Velarde’s Bez launches a new label limb called Commend There, collecting and presenting material recorded outside of Commend’s four walls but maintaining a special connection to our space station. Bez will be available on digital platforms December 6, 2019, with physical editions available from and beyond Commend then / there.

Tracklist
CS

Side A
A1. Nightfall
A2. Take Out
A3. Sommer
A4. Duck
A5. Nightshift

Side B
B1. Intro
B2. Another Para
B3. Effect
B4. Bez
B5. Ohla
B6. Los
B7. Neighbor
B8. Mon
B9. Tomorrow

DIGITAL

01. Nightfall
02. Take Out
03. Sommer
04. Duck
05. Nightshift
06. Intro
07. Another Para
08. Effect
09. Bez
10. Ohla
11. Los
12. Neighbor
13. Mon
14. Tomorrow

Videos