Companion album: "Serious Frosting Batch 2: Drops, Ripples, Waves" available via Lost Chocolate Lab at
LostChocolateLab.bandcamp.com/album/serious-frosting-batch-2-drops-ripples-waves
Lost Chocolate Lab: Solo guitar project of Damian Kastbauer, evoking equally the infinitesimal and the infinite, and finding transcendence through going vertical rather than linear. Balancing knitting together long-form ambient stylings with working in the game audio industry, Seattle-based Kastbauer is currently project manager at Audiokinetic, and has worked on several popular titles. In addition, he's logged location-based VR experience with the renowned director of Revenant, Alejandro Iñárritu—specifically, facilitating sound design for Carne y Arena, a project about the harsh reality of immigrants at the Mexican-US border crossing.
Sunrise Transparence: Solo live instrumental project of Space Anemone founder Anj--at times meditatively centered, connected and at one, yet at other times starkly lost in space, casting wildly about in a wrenching search for meaning and catharsis. The ST experience builds rich, evocative soundworlds through a combination of improvised instrumentals, meticulously constructed – and deconstructed – synths and audio recordings, and a textural vision of interweaving resonance balancing flow with suspension. When not performing in venues from the Walt Disney Concert Hall to the bluewhale jazz club, you can find Anj working as a live audio engineer, meditation facilitator, and music educator in the Los Angeles area.
The Lost Chocolate Lab and Sunrise Transparence worlds collide on two new, interconnected albums, Serious Frosting Batch 2: Drops, Ripples, Waves, released by Lost Chocolate Lab, and Embrace/Depths Of Creation (Sunrise Chocolate), released by Space Anemone. The genesis of these releases was recorded by Kastbauer and engineered by Scott Colburn at his Gravelvoice Studios over two weekends in the winter of 2018. Kastbauer sent a rough mix of the improvised "Drops, Ripples, Waves" recording to Anj, who worked their own spontaneous magic with sackbut, organ, and synth in response to the source material. Further processing and mixing by both musicians resulted in a disciplined efflorescence of cosmic audio-sculpting.
Averaging over 14 minutes in duration, these pieces have time to evolve and accrue a majesty of canyon-esque dimensions. Despite the vast expanses Lost Chocolate Lab conjures, though, he and Anj are essentially minimalists. A track such as “Drops, Ripples, Waves/ Embrace (Chocolate Transparence Mix)” finds them wringing profound feelings out of a few well-chosen elements—a forlorn, fog-horny melody and a desolate, gently wavering drone; the result is like Fourth World Music trumpeter Jon Hassell in deep tranquility. This tendency toward building grand monuments from sparse materials is one hallmark of true sonic alchemists.
released January 21, 2021
Damian Kastbauer plays guitars and effects on tracks 1, 2, 5, 6, 7 & mixes for tracks 3, 4, 6, 7
lostchocolatelab.com
Sunrise Transparence plays sackbut, organ, keyboards, pedals on all tracks & mixes for tracks 1, 2, 5
twitter.com/SunriseTransp
Guitars Engineered by Scott W. Colburn
Mastered by Nathan Moody at Obsidian Sound
obsidiansound.net
Cover art photography by John O'Neill & Damian Kastbauer; design by Sunrise Tranparence