Wednesday, November 11, 2009

cas kaplan - history of the moon, vol. 2: mons agnes

the next in a veritably deluge of backlogged solo material, mons agnes is among the listenable flotsam of an ill-fated project i conceived two years ago. my history of the moon project (named for a song of my father's) was not unlike sufjan stevens' "fifty states" project - the plan was to write so many songs and name each of them for one of the many maria of our moon. a noble and romantic undertaking; such magnificent names as "sea of tranquility" and "lake of dreams" they had! but for every "lacus aestatis" there was a "sea that has become known," and eventually the naming of the songs became less expressive of the music itself and more of a struggle to fit what names there remained with the songs that developed entirely independent of them. i came away with two albums' worth of material: volume 1 has no business being heard by anybody, save for the songs that i cherry picked for other cas kaplan releases. volume 2 is made up the three ambient pieces i recorded during this period - the first, "lacus aestatis," is set to appear on a forthcoming album, making this a sort of companion piece to the upcoming release of the album.

download cas kaplan - history of the moon, vol. 2: mons agnes



tracklist:

1. lacus aestatis (the long night)
2. lacus somniorum
3. ocean of storms

cover photo by daniel gatieno

cas kaplan myspace

note: the forthcoming album in question is titled an endless ocean of stars and should be released this week in conjunction with the more pompous and circumstantial (and simultaneous) release on my home planet, cooling pie.

cas kaplan - at rest

four songs i recorded alone in my bedroom on a summer day at age sixteen with my favorite tape player, now deceased. "this is for you" and "no one will know" were written for different girls in the different sunny seasons - isn't it strange how the irony of a love song can be heard even before the love departs? "see no evil" - probably the millionth version of this i've recorded in four years, but with the hum of machinery and summer breeze i think this version communicates its intentions the best. "bonnie doon" is a traditional robert burns tune the arrangement of which i cribbed from alasdair roberts, a continuing source of inspiration (not unlike girls, actually).

download cas kaplan - at rest



tracklist:

1. no one will know
2. see no evil
3. this is for you
4. ye banks and braes o' bonnie doon

cover photo by courtney coulombe

cas kaplan myspace