The World A Wash Away, by Modern Concern

The World A Wash Away

by Modern Concern

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The Land Ethic (Extract), Bushed Stiles, razing / raising, Expansion Towards Pristine Flatness, Sure Is A Good Hamburger, Mada, The Great Court, Natural Rhythms Vol. 2, and 12 more. , and , .

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Limited Edition CD-R (MOCO10)
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Handmade CD-R housed in a slim, translucent DVD case. Two unique inserts featuring supplemental on-site photography, additional readings gathered by the artist. Thick Descriptions #1.

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Includes unlimited streaming of The World A Wash Away via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	People's Reservoir 25:00	buy track
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3.	Washwatch 18:01	buy track
4.	ISO 3758 08:01	buy track

about

The World A Wash Away is a work of longform acoustic ecology which catalogs ambient sound systems within automatic labor environments by juxtaposing the deeply harmonic and rhythmic character of mechanized self-service stations with the malleable sonic theater of their human participants. WAWA documents four separate trips to the same laundromat over the course of four Saturdays in November 2020.

In 76 minutes, the listener is strategically positioned amongst different settings in the laundry. Posing as fabric itself, we rinse within the vast wash of melodic drones and flowing percussion permeating ceaselessly from the machines, where each falling coin brings us closer and closer to the similar cycles of sleep. Mothers and daughters chatter through facemasks to each other and on the phone in Spanish and Polish. Throughout the room, a national news broadcast whispers the presidential results in English between ads and public service announcements.

The record ends with its only composed track, created from minimally-altered field recordings taken from outside the laundromat. Here, a strange and synthesized landscape provides portraiture of the building’s exterior, almost void of all detail. Far from the unnatural heat of the aisles, the drama of the voices, the listener is displaced from the careful redemptive elements of humanhood that characterize the lavenderia experience. The reality of the cold street reemerges and the cycle continues, with you down drain, forever.

//

credits

released September 10, 2021

The World a Wash Away was recorded at J&M Laundromat, 3542 W Belmont Avenue in Chicago, IL, 60618 on November 7, 14, 21, and 28, 2020. The tracks are presented in the order of their being recorded. All photography was taken inside or outside of the laundromat by the author.

WAWA is the first entry in Modern Concern's Thick Descriptions series, which is dedicated to multi-media placestudies and works of acoustic ecology which utilize unmanipulated, candid field recording techniques.

If you would like to contribute to the series: mocotype@gmail.com

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Modern Concern Chicago, Illinois

Broadly focused distributor of small handmade paper-plastic products.

Head music, creative composition, and new acoustic languages.

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