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Trouble Books - Love at Dusk MIE 022

Its with great pleasure that we can announce that MIE will be releasing Love at Dusk
the LP by Trouble Books on November 18th.

The follow-up to 2012's well-received "Concatenating Fields," "Love at Dusk" finds the
Ohio-based husband/wife duo of Keith Freund and Linda Lejsovka further developing
their enchanting approach to songwriting, one which juxtaposes highly detailed sound
design and synthesis techniques with beguiling pop sensibilities. After a brief but
labyrinthine opener, "Profile of Woman in Silk Hood" blooms seductively into being,
with Lejsovka's vocals set adrift over an a bed of constantly evolving synths that
surround a driving bassline and propulsive drum machine arrangement. It's
simultaneously airy and dense, abstracted and familiar - and it's a prime example what
makes the Trouble Books sound so unique and arresting. Later, "Unfolded" conjures a
plaintive atmosphere from panning oscillations and a hopeful piano refrain. The
instrumental masterfully navigates a space between optimistic and chary, a tension
which plays out throughout the record and encapsulates well the feelings of
excitement and uncertainty that characterize pregnancy and childbirth (Lejsovka was
pregnant with the couple's first child during the gestation of the album). With "Love at
Dusk," Trouble Books present what is arguably their finest work to date, an album of
songs that feels both honest and matured and wears its influences (both musical and
lived) proudly on its sleeves.

Trouble Books are Keith Freund and Linda Lejsovka. The album was mastered by
James Plotkin. Artwork was designed by Jacob Feige.

Keith said this about the LP:

'I feel like this record needs more of an explanation than previous efforts, but to be honest we’re still sort of figuring it out ourselves. Typically, we approach writing and recording with a notebook full of artistic ideas and goals and then work them out in the songs, allowing our environment and current living situation to color the work, but in a controlled way within the guidelines we set. This time, life got rather chaotic and messy and I can’t really tell you “this is what the album is trying to do”, and instead probably need to just say “this is what happened”.

Love at Dusk was written and recorded during Linda’s pregnancy and in the few months just after the birth of our daughter (“Chiaroscuro” actually in the couple evening hours between a peaceful dinner and rushing to the hospital). It’s definitely not an album about a baby or becoming parents, I don’t think we know how to or want to fit that into this project, but instead ended up being a portrait of the two of us clinging to each other throughout a tumultuous, difficult, and exciting time of change.

A friend said that the album has periods of being very “lush and beautiful”, but punctuated with frequent “sonic and lyrical apocalypses”, which I think describes our new record and our past year pretty well.

Acknowledged musical influences: piano records by artists like Harold Budd and Ryuichi Sakamoto, that Blue Nile/Peter Gabriel/Prefab Sprout/Kate Bush early digital synthesis neighborhood, Emeralds’ Fresh Air single, Stéphane Picq’s soundtrack for the Lost Eden CD-ROM, those recent Burial EPs probably, and the amazing in studio video of Enya playing “Boadicea”.'

PRE-ORDER NOW for the 18th November.
Digital versions will be sent out on 11/11/13.

LP + Digital (all formats) - £12
Digital (all formats) - £6
plus p&p.

Pressing Information

The LP is limited to a run of 400 copies with a d/l code and will be available digitally.
Distributed in the US by Revolver, in the EU by Morr Music and direct from MIE
in the UK.

Tracks

  1. Softscraper
  2. Profile of Woman in Silk Hood
  3. Stacking Spheres
  4. Unfolded
  5. Fake Fern Shadows
  6. The Very End, Again
  7. Dawn Behind the Clouds
  8. Chiaroscuro
  9. All Flowers