Nature Always Needs Improving, by NED MILLIGAN

Nature Always Needs Improving

by NED MILLIGAN

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Pressed on black vinyl. Come with full color jacket, two-sided insert and download code. One time edition of only 100 copies. Co-released with Florabelle records.

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about

Ned Milligan now presents his new album, Nature Always Needs Improving, building on the momentum generated by his admired third LP, Continental Burns. Echoing that album’s mode and structure, Nature Always Needs Improving offers a handful of tender, minimalist pieces before giving way to a spectral side-length conclusion. The deep intimacy of the album is enhanced by its process—primarily recorded outdoors on porches or in yards—and by the unpredictable interaction of incidental sounds with traditionally musical sound sources, especially resonant chimes.

The title of the album—a phrase originally found in a decades-old beauty ad—is presented as a statement but taken by Milligan with a healthy amount of skepticism. Musically, the idea is further considered in the contrast of untreated, in-situ recordings of chimes and kalimba with more heavily processed pieces comprised of interwoven overtones. At nearly twenty minutes long, “Sternal Sky,” the album’s finale, appropriately synthesizes what has come before in a gauzy, homespun glow.

Nature Always Needs Improving is a refinement of some ideas and an exploration of others. Inspired by artists like Philip Corner, Federico Durand, and Steve Roden, it was equally influenced by rural excursions, house sounds, and afternoons spent with dogs.

Limited to 100 LPs, comes with a two-sided insert and download code. Co-released with Florabelle Records.

credits

released November 29, 2017

For digital download please purchase directly from the artist:

florabelle.bandcamp.com/album/nature-always-needs-improving

Written & recorded in York, Maine and Sunnyside, New York between 2015 and 2016, except for Handwashing Delicates (once more), which revisits a composition from 2007.

Mastered by Taylor Deupree.

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GERTRUDE TAPES: vinyl, cassettes and CDs in small editions, off and on from 2003 until 2024.

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