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The City Is a Lie We Tell Ourselves

by Coupler

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my name is wumbleg
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my name is wumbleg I love this ep so much. It cannot be defined by a single genre or characteristic. You can really tell the upmost care went into making this ep the best it could be. And it really shows. The soundscapes on this ep are so textured and delicately layered it turns it into straight up ear candy. Coupler deserves to be noticed more by not only ambient fans, but also experimental fans in general.
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Blown Glass 05:27
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about

Throughout the pandemic I’ve been struck by the feeling that my adopted home of Chicago and the fact of my living here has become almost irrelevant to my daily existence. The things that make it a world class city have become off limits or even inaccessible in many cases. The significance of place has become a kind of myth, a fiction, and my sense of place has been localized to my apartment and the handful of shops I go to for necessities.

If The Forgotten Openness of the Closed World was an introspective meditation on the nature of time, then The City Is a Lie We Tell Ourselves is an interrogation of the concept of place, specifically in these times. What does it mean to call any particular pin on the map “home” at this moment, when we are connected more by wires and electricity than any common civic purpose? Every place has become a non-place, each apartment simultaneously part hotel room, part office, part cafe. The city bares its veins only on trips for essentials or walks through ice.
--Ryan Norris

credits

released March 5, 2021

Produced by Michael Hilger and Ryan Norris except “The Charm of Impossibilities” produced by Rollum Haas, Michael Hilger and Ryan Norris

Mixed by Michael Hilger

Recorded by Michael Hilger at Maestro-Matic, Chicago, IL and Ryan Norris at Sweetblood Sound Mid-Coast, Chicago, IL
Additional recording on “Clear Concrete” by Mark Yoshizumi
Additional recording on “The Charm of Impossibilities” by Rodrigo Avendaño and Rollum Haas at Sweetblood Sound, Nashville

Mastered by Michael Gillilan at Giltone Mastering


Clear Concrete

Rollum Haas - drum programming
Michael Hilger - electric bass, Yamaha CS-50, Roland Juno 60, string loops, Mellotron, shaker
Ryan Norris - piano, Yamaha CS-50, Roland Juno 60, drum programming, acid bass
Clara Takarabe - viola


Blown Glass

Matt Glassmeyer - buzzaphone, cello
Michael Hilger - electric bass, drum programming, Yamaha CS-50, Mellotron
Ryan Norris - drum programming, cycling synthesizers, Yamaha CS-50, Mellotron, synth bass


The Charm of Impossibilties

Rollum Haas - drum and synth bass programming, vocal editing
Michael Hilger - Yamaha CS-50, Roland Juno 60, Fender Rhodes, voce synth, conga, bells
Ryan Norris - Korg MS-20, drum programming, voce synth, Yamaha CS-50, Roland Juno 60, Mellotron

Written by Ryan Norris (Sounding Brass Music (ASCAP) administered by Pacific Electric Music Publishing/Gilda Music) except “The Charm of Impossibilities” written by Rollum Haas and Ryan Norris

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Coupler Chicago, Illinois

Started in 2012, Coupler is the pseudonym of Ryan Norris and a rotating cast of collaborators; Rodrigo Avendano, Rollum Haas and Michael Hilger among them. It's membership has occasionally swollen to eight but its core is Norris and a maelstrom of ideas. ... more

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