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A Mold For The Bell

by Logan Farmer

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    - Deluxe 12" vinyl version

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    - Limited edition CD in 4-panel gatefold wallet

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  • T-Shirt/Apparel

    100% cotton, black tee. Features original linocut design by me. Printed at Pine Printshop in Fort Collins, CO. Super soft. Limited to 60 shirts.
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1.
It’s gonna be hard to talk about this when it’s done Those days of plenty come and gone The morning lake in silver, receive me when I come The wide awake believer The path inside Follow the breadcrumb trail Relax your mind What are you afraid of: Silence or swell? Let’s keep it short and simple, an impulse in a veil You found a line of silver in my hair And every night you saw it, the proof of our decline You’d rather die than fall in The path inside Follow the breadcrumb trail Relax your mind What are you afraid of: Silence or swell?
2.
Despite the silence I want to live The days are mine but The nights are his The great designer Familiar fears I’ve made my mind up My vision’s clear Softness reduces us to envy and poor health I see the mirror but don’t recognize myself Cue Sunday bells Despite the silence I want to live To lay beside her Insignificant The same reminder Forgotten years I’ve made my mind up To disappear Softness reduces us to envy and poor health I see the mirror but don’t recognize myself Cue Sunday bells
3.
From where I stand it’s a long way down Everyone wants to thank you You’re a friend of her husband now She married him after high school It’s a full time job, just staying calm Don't read the papers Ironed shirts, an endless thirst Drop the anchor: A leather bag, Initials scratched, The voice you had Now useless as Vapor, Or dust, I dream of dust From where I stand it’s a long way down Light the candles I gave you You’ll see a man in a horsehair gown Don’t shake his hand unless he makes you Call him in, life is this: Imitation Draw a horse, approaching storms Fill the pages If I ask you then “Do you hear those bells?” Just lift your chin And nod until You can say “yes I hear them, They called us here”
4.
I learned a lot this way: bringing cups of water to your home On a sunny day, I’d sometimes see your figure in the door It was nothing then, capturing the silence with a look If I could call you friend, I’d dedicate my life to being good But my thoughts are always Crooked lines Could you see me that way? Could you make it right?
5.
William 04:49
If you catch me roaming Between here and our town Tell mother and father I’ll see them around Put a dime in the river And watch it slip by Our brief moment together Was like that flash in the Rhine I’ll find work as a cobbler No boot I can’t mend And I’ll marry the daughter Of some company man Fill a house with my children Tall horse just to ride And the townsfolk will mention My name as they dine I’ll outlive my children I’ll outlive my wife And I’ll wait for you William When our hair has gone white And the townsfolk won’t bother Nor the law give a damn If I lay with a woman Much less a man
6.
The Moment 04:29
Drop of water, oblivion Just keep it simple, one more try Pour wine just to finish it I’d like to see you one more time Cascading shimmers of youth: Afraid to let go of you But I’m so unbelievably tired Look at my face No friends on the internet No homesick daughter in LA I rise to the surface and Resolve to call you in a day I’ll lay a sheet over you In my way I’m generous too But I’m so unbelievably tired Look at my face Glass of water, oblivion Invite the killer into my life If the song gets too intimate For each wrong, there’s a way to make it right If I fight, the moment lingers If I fight, the moment lingers
7.
Renegade 05:24
The truth is I’m in love with it In my mind Been hiding from this punishment A long time Bodies on the highway, bottle in my coat It’s been a long day, just make it home This ruined archway, five million souls That won’t know my name until I go Confusing signs of temperament I can’t collect my thoughts I dream that I’m not weak And turn those dreams to salt I face the audience, I play the songs It’s magnificent and then it’s not And I haunt the galleries As I was told, this once was everything And now it’s gone And each row will tie a stem To the robes of quiet men: “I would like to try again”
8.
South Vienna 05:10
Far and wide, where has gentle gone? Find me sacrificial in the barn A single glass of bourbon has eliminated thought The ruins of an archway in the mist You will paint a landscape on the door I will fake an illness for your warmth Suddenly remember what the firewood is for: Casting jagged shadows on your wrist I always wanted this I always wanted this I always wanted this What fills your beak? What is this, a violin tattoo? To commemorate the quiet afternoons Tell them not to mourn me, I was born to leave the room Designed to fill the grooves carved on a disc So bring me South Vienna in a dress Let her cut the wisdom from your head Echoes of surrender in the valley of the dead Ice can break the fever in a pinch I never wanted this I never wanted this I never asked for this What fills your beak?

about

“It’s going to be hard to talk about this when it’s done.”

So begins A Mold For The Bell, the new album from Colorado singer-songwriter and producer Logan Farmer. What follows that enigmatic lyric is a collection of stark and ambient folk songs, tethered solely by Farmer’s unadorned vocals, acoustic guitar and moving embellishments from contributors like saxophonist Joseph Shabason (who also mixed the album) and renowned harpist Mary Lattimore.

With the help of Grammy-nominated producer Andrew Berlin (Gregory Alan Isakov), Farmer tracked all of the vocal and guitar parts over two days in the early months of 2021. The tracks were recorded quickly, live in the studio to capture the raw intimacy and immediacy of Farmer’s live performances. The rest of the album’s creation occurred remotely, over texts, phone calls and emails with Shabason and a handful of other musicians as wildfires, insurrections and the pandemic raged around them.

“I was working at a bookstore that winter,” Farmer explains, “and I’d walk to my shift every day, obsessing over lyrics and early mixes in a cheap pair of earbuds.” These daily walks would take him past a church, where he’d often stop on the sidewalk and listen to the bells at the top of the hour. “I’ve always loved the sound of church bells, but as the situation worsened, what began as a comfort began to feel ominous, almost threatening.”

This experience, alongside influences as disparate as Tarkovsky’s film Andrei Rublev and the novels of Olga Tokarczuk, led to a collection of songs that are similarly foreboding, expanding upon the stark and spacious universe of Farmer’s last album (2020’s Still No Mother) to reveal an atmosphere that’s even more oppressively still, like an abandoned Victorian home.

Despite its doom-ridden formation, A Mold For The Bell retains a distinctly warm and homespun quality, replacing the digital drum machines and synth pads of Still No Mother with the lonely flutter of a clarinet and the occasional swell of strings. The first track, “Silence or Swell” is a dance between finger-picked acoustic guitar and a mournful saxophone solo from Shabason, in which Farmer asks quietly, “What are you afraid of, silence or swell?”

This question is answered implicitly in the second track “Cue Sunday Bells”, amid a graceful backdrop of cello and clarinet: “Despite the silence,” Farmer sings, “I want to live”. The listener is drawn in further by tracks like “Horsehair” featuring harpist Mary Lattimore, and the strangely sinister “Crooked Lines”, which defies expectation with dissonant punches of distortion and swirling sax. The second half of the album features tracks like the gently orchestral “The Moment” and the climactic “Renegade”, which ends with unsettling bursts of glitchy, electrified woodwinds.

Unlike its predecessor, which was a personal exploration of Farmer’s climate anxiety, A Mold For The Bell reads like a collection of short stories, a series of disparate voices and doomed romances that seek dignity in a time of environmental and societal collapse. Lyrical imagery like bells, ruins, and archways appear repeatedly throughout the album, giving the impression that you’re overhearing a conversation, hushed and in confidence.

The closing track, “South Vienna”, finishes the collection with something that resembles a waltz, amid a stream of elegiac saxophone and delicate piano chords. The “this” that was so hard to talk about in the first track has reappeared, and Farmer exits with a confession, although it sounds as if he’s addressing an empty room:

“I never wanted this, I never asked for this”

The music finishes and the listener is left without further explanation, an intruder in an empty home, as a field recording of church bells lingers in the distance.

credits

released October 14, 2022

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Recorded by Logan Farmer and Andrew Berlin
Mixed by Joseph Shabason
Mastered by Carl Saff
Photography by Ben Ward

LF: vocals, guitar, keys
Joseph Shabason: saxophone
Annie Leeth: violin
Naomi McCarroll-Butler: clarinet
Mary Lattimore: harp
Yoed Nir: cello
Ezra Pyle: guitar

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Logan Farmer Fort Collins, Colorado

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