Harvestman

Harvestman

Triptych: Part One

Neurot Recordings

At its heart, music has always been a questioning of inheritance—a dialogue with predecessors and forebears, the forging of one’s own perspective in relation to what has come before, and for some, a plunge into the boundless realms between. For Steve Von Till, that process has always taken on an added dimension to become the most sacred of tasks. Whether through the apocalyptic uprising of Neurosis, the sonic deconstructions of their sister project, Tribes Of Neurot, the invocatory intimacy of his eponymous solo albums or his instrumental psychedelic reveries in the guise of Harvestman, that dialogue has never just been with musical influences, but with what underpins them: the primordial, elemental forces now banished to the peripheries of our contemporary consciousness, yet still broadcasting a signal for all who will listen. The first of a three-album cycle, Triptych: Part One, is Harvestman’s most ambitious undertaking yet. Drawn to the megaliths, ruins and ancient sites mapped out along the British and European mainland’s geographical and psychic landscapes, the folklore and apocrypha forever resurfacing as portals from a rational world, Triptych is a meditation forged from traces and residues, and an hallucinatory recollection of artists who have tapped into that enduring otherworldliness embedded within us all. It’s a dream diary narrating a passage through Summer Isle where Flying Saucer Attack are wafting out of a window, a distant Fairport Convention are being remixed by dub master Adrian Sherwood, celestial scanners Tangerine Dream are trying to drown out Bert Jansch and Hawkwind are...

Harvestman

Music For Megaliths

Neurot Recordings

“Ruins, monuments, and ancient sites of worship are multi-sensory experiences—at once residues of the sacred, the parchment on which the passage of time has been inscribed and templates for imaginative reconstruction—spaces in which to invest and immerse, to trade your bearings for an inexhaustible state of transition. “Over the course of three albums, Steve Von Till has, under the guise of Harvestman, provided the sonic analogue, casting his net for what might have been and yet still be. Both a personal meditation and a tuning fork for the most ancient and enduring of resonances, his latest album, Music For Megaliths, further expands his journeys along the sonic ley lines that run between folk, drone, psychedelia, the ‘kosmische’ outposts of krautrock and noise: not as an act of eclecticism, but of divination, giving voice to an underlying continuity that binds them all. “Recorded over a period of several years in the dawn hours of creation, this album is an aggregation of moments and recordings that have allowed themselves to spell out a greater whole. Utilizing repetition, manipulation and modulation, it’s a hallowed frequency dial that ranges across the pulse-regulated drone of “The Forest Is Our Temple,” revving up like a generator powered by arcane currents, the blissful gaze of “Ring Of Sentinels,” the ominous waves of interference on “Sundown,” and “White Horse,” with its rite of dissolution and regeneration, nomadic and devout. Music For Megaliths is a crossing over, whose multiple routes are testament to a singular and sensuously dilated vision.”...

Harvestman

Trinity

Neurot Recordings

Trinity is a limited-edition issue of the soundtrack to the Italian horror film H2Odio (English title: Hate2O). Under his psych-guitar moniker Harvestman, Steve Von Till of Neurosis has composed a compelling backdrop to this psychological thriller. Inspired by the film's picturesque remote-island landscape and the tormented psyche and tension of its plot, this soundtrack projects its own epic imagery in the mind of the listener.  In 2005, critically acclaimed Italian director Alex Infascelli (Almost Blue) received a Harvestman album while beginning his edit of his new film. Captivated by the record's pace, variety, rich soundscapes and hypnotic nature, he contacted Von Till to ask if he would be willing to score the film on short notice. The guitarist had just relocated to North Idaho and was about to complete his home studio, so the timing was perfect. Within weeks, the entire score was finished and Infascelli flew from Italy to Von Till's home to go over the material.  The sounds vary from lush, hopeful, and beautiful guitar-based landscapes to sinister visions of psychic turmoil.  "[Hate2O's] strange events begin when Olivia and her four friends hold a purifying water fast at her secluded cottage. Docile and introverted, Olivia is easy prey for her deceitful guests, who ridicule her and her long-lost twin--an unborn child 'absorbed' by Olivia during the childbirth that killed her mother. Tormented, Olivia ferociously removes the only palpable link she has with her dead twin--a tooth lodged beneath the skin of her shoulder. But discarding it down the drain...

Harvestman

In A Dark Tongue

Neurot Recordings

Harvestman is the brainchild of Neurosis vocalist/guitarist Steve Von Till, who considers In a Dark Tongue a venture into an imagined past. The album is inspired by Hawkwind, Fairport Convention, Tangerine Dream, Pentangle, Steeleye Span, Skullflower, Caspar Brotzman, and Loop, among others. It is a massive meeting point of styles and influences, all of which boil down to a surreal and inspired sound.  Long known for blazing guitar trails in the heavy music realm, Von Till once again turns his attention to a world of pure yet abstract psychedelic rock guitar. This second record as Harvestman is even more loosely hung upon the framework of traditional music--these pieces are distilled and distorted into something else entirely. Traditional melodies and tunes lie lovingly wrecked and ruined in the wake of rediscovery. It may be blasphemous to folk purists, but this odd brew is sonic heaven for heads that dream to the drone of fuzz guitar. While these recordings contain a heavy dose of the subtle sounds and textures that are distinctly "Neurot" in tenor, they are window on the inner working of Von Till's psyche--or at least some of what goes on in his private studio late at night.

Harvestman

Lashing The Rye

Neurot Recordings

***The anticipated new psychedelic rock album from NEUROSIS guitarist STEVE VON TILL under his HARVESTMAN moniker. Hung upon a framework of traditional music, Von Till distills and distorts the sounds into completely new forms, unleashing an odd brew of sonic drone and fuzz with subtle nuances and textures. Twelve vocal and instrumental tracks.