Sean Conrad

Artist and musician based out of Seattle, Washington

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Lyke Rayne The Time Will Sort Ye Out (Slow Spell, 2026) Bandcamp / Tidal / Qobuz / Apple Music / Spotify

This album is a new chapter. It's been in the hopper for a while. I started recording music for this project back in April of 2022 at an artist residency outside of Nevada City, CA at Purdon Studios. And I've been follow the thread that started it's unwind there ever since. Some folks know me as an "ambient" musician or an "instrumental" musician, so to them this work may be a bit surprising as it's more in the real of "rock". I'm using quotes because, like a lot of artists, I don't totally feel comfortable being boxed in with marketing terms. But they do help to communicate, in broad strokes, what I'm getting at. This album is very near and dear to me. I'm elated and anxious and relieved to finally be letting it go. In the end it's but another offering on the table.

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Album artwork collaboration with Stefan Beck for "Patterner" by Golden Brown (Inner Islands, 2025)

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Just in! Risograph prints for Los Angeles fire relief. These are a couple 2-color prints on off-white heavy weight cover stock. Signed, titled, and numbered in a limited edition of 50. $15 each. All proceeds are going directly to helping those affected by the fires in Los Angeles. Both are based off of my Channelers album covers. They’re available on the Inner Islands Bandcamp page. Hope this can do a bit of good 🙏🏼

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I'll be playing a Channelers set at Casa Del Xolo in Seattle, WA on November 8, 2024. Gonna bring my dulcimer and EWI. Hope to see you there!

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Channelers Ringing In An Open Sky (Inner Islands, 2024) Buy / Stream

In the summer of 2023 I played a couple of shows for the first time after a long while of not playing out. To prepare for those I developed a new set for dulcimer and EWI (electronic wind instrument) that was strictly improvised. I didn’t want to be beholden to anything pre-composed, because in the past when I’ve done that the pieces I have at my disposal sometimes don’t gel with the mood of the space I’m playing, and I’m at a total loss because that’s all I have to work with. So, I decided improv was the way. And thankfully the second of those shows, the one at The Crown in Oakland, CA, was recorded. Selections from that set are featured throughout this album (What Need Not Be Kept, Stone Watching Shadow, and Think It's Gonna Rain). I was feeling pretty heavy at the time, as supreme court decisions had been rolling out in the weeks prior and led to further reflection on the decisions from the year before and the state of the system in general. I was really just stewing in it. I think there’s a weightiness that permeates the tracks recorded at The Crown. The others are perhaps lighter. They were recorded at home, layering a few one-take performances while sitting next to my pup Raindrop. Hopefully that makes for a nice balance and some emotional range.

This is the second Channelers album (after 2017’s Faces Of Love) to be comprised solely of improvised work and the first to contain recordings made in front of an audience. This is perhaps the only Channelers release that is reflective of what my contemporaneous live sets are like, so it holds a unique position there. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be doing sets like this, so I think it’s a good snapshot of this time.

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Singles artwork for a collection of remixes from Rachel Kiel's album Dream Logic (self-released, 2024)

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Album artwork for "Sun Glories" by Chuck Johnson (Western Vinyl, 2024)

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"Reaching Without Finding" I, II, and III

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Skyminds Echoes On The Shore (Inner Islands, 2024) Stream / Buy

"I'm very excited to be sharing a new Skyminds album! In case you're new to Skyminds, this is my duo project with Michael Henning that we've been working on since 2014. This is our fourth album and it also marks 10 years of Skyminds as an ongoing entity. This particular album is perhaps our most gentle and reflective collection to date, as the tracks were chosen to work with the guiding ethos of Inner Islands - grounding and finding center through sound. It's available on cassette through Bandcamp and streaming on a handful of platforms."

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Album artwork and cassette layout for "Dreams In Suspension" by Willow Skye-Biggs (Inner Islands, 2024)

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Channelers Morcom Tapes (Inner Islands, 2024) Stream / Buy

“I was frequenting the Morcom rose garden (in Oakland, CA) a fair bit while compiling these tapes. The recordings themselves are live solo performances on hammered dulcimer and acoustic guitar. There are melodic bits and freeform improvs. These days I find my enjoyment of music is so contingent on my mode of listening and that (for me at least) some musics lend themselves nicely to certain modes. I would probably listen to this with a bit of a soft focus and my active attention elsewhere.”

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Album artwork and 12" vinyl layout for "Wide Ranging Rider" by Golden Brown (Inner Islands, 2023)

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Channelers Generation / Harvest (Inner Islands, 2023) Stream / Buy

"The Channelers work, for me, is a place I go to where I can feel grounded and still, where I can feel my depth and find my equilibrium. It was recorded in Oakland, Los Angeles, and while on artist residency at Purdon Studios outside of Nevada City, California. This collection is really special to me and I hope you dig it. Recommended if you’re in the mood for something mellow and meditative."

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Album artwork for "A Leisurely Swim To Everlasting Life" by Ki Oni (AKP Recordings, 2023)

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"Eye of my Apple"

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"Finding Our Way"

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Poster for Skyminds show at The Backroom in Berkeley, CA.