a quiet end

An exploration into a multitude of processes, creative and otherwise. [email protected] A new EP can be found here as a pay-what-you can download. It is the third and final in a series. The second EP in the series is available here. The first EP in the series is available here. Invisible Film is a free-to-download fictitious Film score to the novel The Bone Clocks.

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Fragments II & The EPs Collected

Very pleased to announce the release of two new collections. 

The first is a compilation of demos, sketches, and musical experiments from the last ten months. Some of these are songs that have nowhere else to go, but a few may turn up on future projects. 

The second is a re-sequenced collection of the songs from the previously released series of EPs. Some have been polished a little bit for this release, and were originally intended to be collected down the road as an album with additional material. In the end they stood on their own as individual releases very well, though packaging them now in this way provides them with some extra context that works well.

The hope for both of these releases is to help with raising funds for a new project that is currently in the early planning stages and that will need a bit of assistance to be fully realized. It is more ambitious in concept and intent than anything done under the AQE banner and is very much going to be a departure from what that has been up until now. There are some other people involved who are going to help shape what it becomes, and that alone is enough to make the future very exciting.

Fragments II & The EPs collect can be purchased for 5$ below via bandcamp. All support is greatly appreciated — everything helps! 

Fragments II: Demos, Sketches, & Rejects by A Quiet End

The EPs Collected by A Quiet End

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How Much Matter?

How much pain? Put them back together again. 

Another demo is available for listening below. Look out for an announcement about some collected releases coming soon. 

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Wouldn’t that be something?

A song about what you might give up in order to go back. And whether that is itself a kind of giving up.  

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All is Nothing When You Know

Listen to the demo for ‘Change Your Plans’ below. It’s another from a new crop of songs that might have a more fully-formed future.

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Radio Silence, Teenage Wildlife and demos

It’s been quiet around here (sorry), though the other connected corners of the internet have still been active.  

On David Bowie’s birthday this past winter, AQE’s sister project, FOOLS, released a cover of Teenage Wildlife as a tribute to our longtime hero and inspiration who passed the previous year. It’s available to download for free and can be listened to below. 

As new material gets written and worked up, some demos have been slowly appearing. Here’s one that was recorded with a phone, live in a giant shower. 

More soon.

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New Release: Invisible Film

A bit of a departure from the last several releases, Invisible Film is a pseudo film score to a movie that doesn’t exist. It was inspired by and is structured around the beautiful novel The Bone Clocks, by David Mitchell. These nine instrumentals use a variety of sounds to reflect the novels story wordlessly, through whatever images they may conjure in the listener.

Invisible Film can be viewed as a kind of spiritual sequel to Past Fragments. They both share a character of experimentation, though the former has less improvised elements than the latter (though some are certainly present), and is significantly more developed in sound and ideas. 

Invisible Film is free to download. Find it here or listen to it below.

The novel itself is also highly recommended; get it from Amazon here. 

Invisible Film by A Quiet End

Today’s the day I either change my life or I don’t.

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All Good Things: EP III and The End of the Series

It took longer than expected. Nine songs, a few genre crosses, several different vibes, but here it is: we’ve reached the end. The series certainly began in an more optimistic place than it ended — something that perhaps lends the whole affair an air of the inconclusive — tracking from a sense of cautious, if skeptical, optimism, to cynicism and horror, and then numbness (though there are hints of more at the end there, maybe?), which whether or not they were the most enjoyable or ‘best’ things, did capture actual impressions and experiences as they happened over the time the music was made. They are true to something, and that makes them successful.

The intension was for there to be three EPs total, and then along with an extra three or four songs, they would make up the basis of a full-length album. Some songs would be ditched as the overall picture developed, maybe they weren’t as strong, or didn’t fit as well, and others would be retooled to varying degrees, have some of their rough edges smoothed, and the result would be a period of time captured in a bottle; a balance of hindsight with the present. It still sounds like a great idea.

Unfortunately it’s not to be. EP III is the end and no album will be built upon it. The reasons aren’t to do with feasibility or things of that nature, but are more abstract, and maybe more personal. Some of the material that ended up on the EPs was a difficult headspace to be in, or figure out, and that, often separate from the mechanics of recording the songs or whatever else might be happening in life, was at times exhausting. Some of which was a product of questions about what it was that needed said as much as anything, and how. Getting to the end of some of those ideas felt like putting them to rest, and even if they were still obfuscated often enough, and maybe could have been clearer or better explored, and more open, that was a point of departure for a process to explore what comes later better and more clearly, rather than re-treading what’s already been. Even if some themes reoccur and come back around, it is motivation to find new angles in them, to be more honest, less inhibited, and achieve more intimacy. 

So the plan is kaput; the series is over. What happens next is going down a different, much needed, road. And like any road, there’s bound to be some diversions along the way. 

Listen to EP III below, or download it in high quality here (recommended, as always). It’s pay-what-you-can, and every little bit helps. 

See you next year.

xo 

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The Second Single from FOOLS

The second single from our sister project FOOLS is now out! Listen to ‘Pick Up on Broken’ below, or download it for free in high quality (recommended).

Our first single ‘Run’ was recommended by the venerable Alan Cross, and ‘Pick Up on Broken’ has already garnered raves from The Indie Machine. 

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FOOLS; new music

Fools is the new collaborative project between Neil Gray (of AQE) and vocalist Nikki Ashworth. The debut song, ‘Run’, is out now and can be listened to below, or downloaded for free from the FOOLS bandcamp page. 

Like Fools on Facebook

Follow Fools on Twitter

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EP II is out now

You can find the link below to purchase/download. As with previous releases it is pay-what-you-can. Free downloads are encouraged, but any help is gratefully appreciated. 

The series itself is running behind, but there’s no cause for concern. Part of the reason for this is due to some other exciting projects that are in the works - more on this soon.

Expect the next instalment sooner than later. 

♥

EP II by A Quiet End

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a brief update

Though the series project is most definitely behind schedule, it is still moving along well. At the moment it appears the next couple of instalments will come out fairly close together, making up for the lull. There are a few other interesting things in the works as well, that more will be said about when the time is right. 

More on everything sometime in the near future. 2015 is already a big year. 

Here's 'Splash the Inhibitor' from EP I. 

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deploy your senses v. 2014

Very honoured to be a part of this for the third straight year along with a host of musical and visual artists from all over the world. Much gratitude goes out to Crimson Mourn and the whole crew for pulling it all together, and for their relentless passion and dedication. The song 'Equine' from last fall's EP I is featured, but the all of artists involved and collection as a whole are worthy of your ears and support.  Special thanks to Chrissen Indri for her stunning visual contribution that accompanies 'Equine'. It captures the spirit of the song in a way that cast new light on it what it meant, which is what the best art does.

The whole compilation is free to  download. Head over to the Facebook page for a variety of download and streaming links. 

<a href="http://deployyoursenses.bandcamp.com/album/deploy-your-senses-2014" data-mce-href="http://deployyoursenses.bandcamp.com/album/deploy-your-senses-2014">Deploy Your Senses 2014 by Deploy Your Senses</a>

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Herzog on ideas

The problem isn’t coming up with ideas, it is how to contain the invasion. My ideas are like uninvited guests. They don’t knock on the door; they climb in through the windows like burglars who show up in the middle of the night and make a racket in the kitchen as they raid the fridge. I don’t sit and ponder which one I should deal with first. The one to be wrestled to the floor before all others is the one coming at me with the most vehemence. I have, over the years, developed methods to deal with the invaders as quickly and efficiently as possible, though the burglars never stop coming. You invite a handful of friends for dinner, but the door bursts open and a hundred people are pushing in. You might manage to get rid of them, but from around the corner another fifty appear almost immediately… Finishing a film is like having a great weight lifted from my shoulders. It’s relief, not necessarily happiness. But you relish dealing with these “burglars.” I am glad to be rid of them after making a film or writing a book. The ideas are uninvited guests, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t welcome.

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'EP I' is now out!

The first in a series that will make up the bulk of a full-length coming in early 2015. It is available as pay-what-you-can and any help is always appreciated, though free downloads are encouraged if you don't have anything to spare or just want to take it for a test run.

Have a look at this post for more info about the series.

See you soon. 

<a href="http://aquietend.bandcamp.com/album/ep-i" data-mce-href="http://aquietend.bandcamp.com/album/ep-i">EP I by A Quiet End</a>

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Song Preview 2: Inhibitor

In two short weeks the first in a series of small releases leading up to an full length album will be available (see the post here). In the meantime, here's another preview. 

The release schedule will be slightly delayed from what was loosely laid out before, mostly due to fiddling around and other commitments, but rest assured, the project as a whole is on its way. 

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a map of the future

Plans are funny things. They essentially exist to change, and yet they are individually made as though they were platonic ideals. Making them too easily subject to let downs, frustrations, maybe disillusionment. If you let them…

  Having said that, here’s the plan:

  In the coming months there are going to be a series of small releases – say, EP length - that lead up to the release of a formal, full-length album. Each entry in the series will be about three songs long, maybe two, depending, which may have some sort of sound, style, or thematic cohesion between them – though they simply might sound nice together, or happen to be what clicked around the same time. The album itself will be an amalgamation of the pervious releases, though the items therein could appear in altered states if they demand it. Some may not appear at all. As the final release, the LP will also include songs that haven’t appeared on any of the previous releases in the series.

  The first of these should be coming some time in the next six weeks, by the close of summer according to present reckoning, though maybe sooner. The one to follow will appear in the later fall, and the one after that around christmas, or possibly early January. There will be three before the full-length, maybe four, and the details may vary; there’ll be more on this as the process gets deeper.

Here’s snippet from the forthcoming, yet-to-be-titled, first edition. It’s presented as ‘unfinished’ in its appearance here, but as to what that means and how, we’ll find out in a few weeks. 

  After all, plans change. 

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we're moving 'round and 'round

In 1984 The Jesus and Mary Chain released their first single on Creation Records and the following year Psychocandy appeared and fuzzed its way into pretty well all of our hearts. 

In honour of the anniversary of those releases, and because it's fun, here's an appropriately sketchy cover of that early single.