#skyminds

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Channelers - Ringing In An Open Sky / Skyminds - Echoes On The Shore

A double shot of greatness from the Inner Islands label. Channelers' latest sees the Seattle-based label's main guy Sean Conrad pursuing inner peace via cathedral-like tones, his celestial dulcimer and EWI (electronic wind instrument) floating, echoing, and yeah, ringing like bells, with only the barest of bass lines keeping things tethered to earth. All of the Channelers releases are worth your time, but Ringing In An Open Sky feels like the most crystallized/crystalline refinement of Conrad's vision yet. Totally beautiful.

Next, we've got Skyminds' Echoes On The Shore, Sean's collab with Michael Henning (AKA Selaroda), which has a similarly meditative style, but with a bit more rhythmic anchoring, as the duo locates mellow/majestic grooves and gorgeous melodies — you'll definitely think of Popol Vuh at their prettiest at times. Even if these songs began as loose improvs, there's an inner logic and intricacy that highlights the easygoing mind-meld Conrad and Henning share. Tragically, Henning passed away earlier this year; Echoes is a more than fitting epitaph.

[gloriousspaceridersworld]

Listen/purchase: Skyminds by Skyminds

[seanconrad]

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."

[thegentleways]

Skyminds - Echoes On The Shore

[inner-islands]

Skyminds - Echoes On The Shore

Skyminds is the collaborative musical duo of Michael Henning (Selaroda, DJ Megasoup) and Sean Conrad (Channelers, Ashan), now based in Berkeley, CA and Seattle, WA respectively. Echoes On The Shore is their fourth album and follows their 2022 release Terra Preta on Not Not Fun. This is perhaps their most reflective and meditative collection to date. This album has less of the divergent eclecticism and dynamic intensity that has characterized their previous releases, instead opting to limit the range to mellower grooves and colorful atmospherics. That said, this work doesn’t skimp on the rich textures and abundant instrumentation that has been integral to their sound thus far.

As has been true from the start, improvisation is at the heart of this music, with every piece starting as a spontaneous dialogue. And those extemporaneous tendencies are an intrinsic quality to Skyminds’ work; everything is grown from those seeds. The most potent parts are stitched together with as much humanity, emotion, and imperfection intact as possible. This is followed by further improvisations and edits piled on top until completion. However, the track “Springtime,” recorded live at the incredible Vintage Synthesizer Museum (before its move down south to Los Angeles), is the first time an un-edited improvisation has made its way onto a Skyminds album. Ultimately, Echoes On The Shore is a monument to their friendship and a deeply shared musical connection spanning the last 10 years.

[seanconrad]

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

[thegentleways]

[seanconrad]

Skyminds Terra Preta (Not Not Fun, 2022) Stream / Buy / Cassette

“So stoked to be sharing a new offering from my project Skyminds, with good friend Michael Henning. This work was carefully culled from six years’ worth of recordings and represents a particular angle of our sound that we feel congealed pleasantly in this collection. Now on offer from Not Not Fun records: the album is available to purchase on Bandcamp and stream wherever you like to stream.”