LNZNDRF - S/T - CD

1 Cd

LNZNDRF (pronounced Lanzendorf) is a collaborative project between the Devendorf brothers (Bryan and Scott) from The National and brass player Ben Lanz (Beirut, The National and Sufjan Stevens).

First coming in to being when they filled an immediate need for a support band for The National after the scheduled opener was waylaid, LNZNDRF has grown into a fully realized, kraut-psych-prog band. Born of their strongly forged relationship playing together in The National, the brothers Devendorf (bass, drums, electronics, vox) and Lanz (guitar, vox) draw on many past musical influences, but perhaps most strongly reference the rock and roll experimentation of the "Krautrock" movement. Their self-titled debut album was recorded between an old church in Cincinnati, OH and a hilltop lodge in Woodstock, NY.

Artist & Album Information- LNZNDRF’s debut is rock minimalism meets sonic maximalism. Recorded in a church in Cincinnati over two and a half days, the eight songs on the album were improvised with a vital spirit harkening back to the reason the members became musicians in the first place. The songs, which were edited from 30+ minute jams, evoke the essence of their expansive, largely improvised live shows. The trio of Ben Lanz, Scott Devendorf and Bryan Devendorf formed in 2011 in Auckland, New Zealand, will play select shows in London, New York, Berlin and Brussels in February and March.

I was recently contacted by the group to speak further about the project. Given only a few notes, each explicitly on improvisation, exploration, and performance, I can only hope to give the record its due by saying that it both documents and elicits an entrance into that hidden and mysterious recognition in our awareness, that realm of timeless time and space, of sound manifesting as field and consciousness. It speaks with an understanding of sound as the ethereal, limitless body in possession of creation.

“Where are we when you are with us?” they asked me.

To speak on a level of surroundings and everyday appearances: an old church in Cincinnati Ohio over three days, months ago, each song given a working title from a separate neighborhood in the Midwestern city [Mt. Storm remains]. I am listening now in my office in Laurel Canyon. It is a cold but sunny afternoon on the top of a mountain.

“Where are we when you are with us?” they ask.

Well, I am both at home with my headphones on in front the stereo but I am also with you in Cincinnati, months ago. I am able to hold each of these moments all at once, Ohio and California, the many hours it took to record the album, the influence and experience of each individual musician concurrently, the words leaving the singers throat, the vibrations of pure sound, all at once, and I too play a part.