cas kaplan - autumn town

the leaves are turning and the sun sets early. "lake of autumn" is a holdover from the history of the moon period, the rest were all done on my roommate's guitar in my dorm room. "speedboat's wake" is a song my dad wrote and my mom used to sing; i don't really have the voice for it. "franny" is a song my brother wrote about a book in high school. i don't have the lyrics right because i couldn't hear them on his recording and i didn't want to ask him because it was supposed to be a surprise. surprise!

download cas kaplan - autumn town



tracklist:

1. lake of autumn (folk song 183)
2. feelin fine
3. older brother
4. speedboat's wake
5. franny (part ii)
6. 3 am and nothing
7. time and place (lacus lenitatis)

"speedboat's wake" written by phil kaplan. "franny (part ii)" written by wes kaplan. cover photo by christy romanick.

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.

the about time - the psychology of minor things, or how phone numbers become poetry

after i got into au revoir simone and found a keyboard from the 80's in my basement, i decided i wanted to use it to sound like them. the first song, "running," is a cover of a song by my friend shai erlichman.

download the about time - the psychology of minor things, or how phone numbers become poetry



tracklist:

1. running
2. spring fever
3. giddy giddy
4. a peace offering

cover photo by christy romanick

the about time myspace

aestatis - audit

the second in today's swath of previously available postings. audit was made entirely using samples during my first two weeks at university, known as the "add/drop" or "auditing" period for classes. these beats are how i spent my time instead of going out and getting trashed with my peers.

download aestatis - audit



1. never
2. it's not free
3. bels
4. pocket monster
5. blurry
6. training day
7. turn

sample credits:

trail of dead, beat happening, sadako and the thousand paper cranes, laraaji, american hi fi, men and volts, futureheads, stars of the lid, brian mcbride, folk implosion, pokemon, au revoir simone, day sleeper, dead can dance, monkey, blink182, legend of legaia, flying saucer attack, anne briggs, eve6, everybody uh-oh, explosions in the sky, the album leaf

aestatis myspace