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442-040
Telafonica
Tales Of Loss In The Stereo Field
12” Vinyl Album/CD Album/Digital Download
4-4-2music.com
4-4-2music.bandcamp.com/album/tales-of-loss-in-the-stereo-field

Between 2012 and 2014, Telafonica slowly carved away a new album. Limiting their live appearances as members have undertook new life experiences (small things like variously applying for doctorates, getting married, driving through Europe, undertaking archæological digs in the Middle East) they largely slipped under the radar. But that time was also been spent redesigning how Telafonica works. The band has always had an electronic base, meaning that the songwriting and production processes have always been intertwined, with the music growing over time, files swapped back and forth, tracks tried out live and reworked as needed. This time, the four core members decided they would try something new. Well, something new for Telafonica, but hardly new for the rest of the world - they all got together in one room at one time and bashed out new songs together physically with eight hands and four voices. With a specific end product in mind, the songs grew as an organic whole.

As the songs began to take shape, the band devised a new production conceit. Because the songs had been developed with each member playing a single instrument, there was more space within the arrangements than might normally be found in a Telafonica recording. With the band currently containing two active producers – Adrian Elmer (The Boy Who Held His Breath, The Children's Encyclopædia) and Blake Wassell (Lessons In Time) – it was decided to record every instrumental performance twice, one for each producer, who would then independently produce a mono mix with their source material. For each track, these two mixes would then be combined – one panned hard left and one hard right – with some final minor tweaks to help them sit together, to create the final stereo mix. Vocals were then laid over this mix. So the distinct personalities of each mix remain intact. Thematically, it became obvious that some consistent themes were emerging, in spite of all four members writing lyrics independently. The greatest of these was loss in a spectrum of forms. Death, breakdown and dementia all informed lyrics but never without glimpses of hope, the dichotomy at the heart of most of Telafonica's music.

As a bonus, all physical copies (12” vinyl and CD) come with 11 custom made zines. Each zine is designed by a different artist, based on a different song from the album. Artists range from illustrator Samantha Lee, collagist Monique Rojas (Nothing To Something) to photographer and Australian radio legend Tim Ritchie, as well as each of the band members themselves.