Playing With Light, by Unicorn

Playing With Light

by Unicorn

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Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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$7 USD or more
Limited Edition 12" Vinyl
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Restock of sealed warehouse copies coming soon.

Vinyl Edition of 250 copies w/ download code included.

Includes unlimited streaming of Playing With Light via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	Playing With Light 05:37	buy track
2.	The Sea 02:12	buy track
3.	Spots 10:00	buy track
4.	Clay And Fire 05:53	buy track
5.	Maho Kyoto 06:34	buy track
6.	Far Away/Close To You 17:11	buy track

about

Issued a decade ago as a CD on Housepig, Unicorn's beautiful and sinister album "Playing With Light" is re-introduced to listeners as a rearranged and remastered LP. Unicorn is WT Nelson, known previously as party to 90s avant-hardcore outfit Man is the Bastard and its spawn, the prolific Bastard Noise. "Playing With Light" features three tracks originally prepared to accompany short films by Stephanie Miller, and, interspersed with standalone compositions, works cohesively to limn a world where the alien oscilloscapes of Bastard Noise merge with earthy synths and electric mandocello. The album opens with a transfixing music box motif that wouldn't be out of place ushering in the opening credits of a vintage thriller. In "Spots," the 10-minute centerpiece track, a mostly unaccompanied synth melody uses syncopation to create the impression of stumbling through darkness. "Clay & Fire" threatens to burst into full-bore power electronics territory but doesn't; the narration we hear is not a transgressive confession but instead a factory worker's discovery of pottery as a respite from his labor. From there the record offers an electronic crescendo before resolving in the almost-comforting "Far Away; Close To You," which trails off in Morse code blips clearly transmitted but only possibly received. "Playing With Light" is unique in Nelson's discography and is entirely deserving of this vinyl reincarnation. "Rhodes, Electric Mandocello, Various Trogotronic Electronic / Electro Acoustics Prototypes & Field Recordings."

credits

released January 1, 2014

Recorded at John Muir Studio, Sand Pedro 2002-2004
Revised for analog format at John Muir Studio, LBC 2013

Mastered for vinyl by Timothy Stollenwerk and presented in an edition of 250 LP copies with download code.