Alchemy & Friends |TRS076
We are extremely pleased to finally be a part of the Kira Kira family, and to be releasing on vinyl the beautiful new album from her, entitled, “Alchemy & Friends”! Originally released earlier in the year on CD by the fine Japanese label, After Hours…we at TRS will be doing a double version, 180g vinyl release in all handmade packaging, with each of the two distinct versions in an edition of 75 copies. Get one, or better yet both!
As it says on Kira’s Bandcamp page…
“Each piece of music is an alchemical offering; An elixir for courage, a device for distilling faith, a meditation on patience or trust. If not a direct conduit to healing, the music is an act of friendship coiled as an alchemical substrate, offered with the intention of inviting transformation on some level.
The music is a celebration of friendship and collaboration with 37 of Kira’s closest luminaries playing on the album. All the music is written and produced by Kira Kira, with the exception of “Alchemy For The Heart” which she produced with Robot Koch and “Pioneer of Love” written together with Hermigervill.
Kindred spirits Dustin O’Halloran as well as composers Eskmo and Rob Simonsen of Los Angeles based collective The Echo Society also make an appearance on Alchemy & Friends as do trumpet player Eiríkur Orri Ólafsson, cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir and Úlfur Hansson.”
Each of our first 75 “standard version” copies, if you can call them that, come in the form of repurposed record jackets….in keeping with Kira’s love of the heavens, the jackets are covered with vintage, negative printed star charts, with accompanying, overlaid star-identification transparencies. The 180g black vinyl with hand stamped labels comes in a 100+ year old, heavy duty Victrola Talking Machine inner sleeve… and a large hand printed textual insert… this is hardly your standard, “standard” version…but that’s the idea, as we are personally a bit tired of the printed record jacket in general! Hand made is the best made!
Each of the second ‘deluxe’ vinyl version of “Alchemy & Friends” will come in repurposed “Library Of The Worlds Greatest Music” classical music box sets, the front of each covered in spanish cork wallpaper, with a hand stamped gold label. Included as well in the first 50 copies is a unique Polaroid print taken by Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir herself. And also…just because we are insane, included in each box is a sunburnt, Icelandic, alchemical friend fabric cyanotype made from actual Icelandic materials. With the music on 180g. silvery alchemical vinyl…and with a large, hand printed star punched insert and other obscurely notative musical diagrams…this one is alchemical indeed! Each of these 75 deluxe versions also comes with a digital download code…for you folks without a record player!
As usual every copy of this release is unique, and may or may not be the one pictured on our website.
