Monocarpic, by ringo

Monocarpic

by ringo

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Last 6 Copies of the Original Geology Records Release of Monocarpic
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Includes unlimited streaming of Monocarpic via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	Citisa (For Wallace) 04:06		buy track
2.	Game of Drones 05:27		buy track
3.	Open Source Immolation 04:33	lyrics	buy track
I love, It's nothing, love I stood with my body in the sun, It was nothing The days we wait for never come, its nothing, love.
4.	3 03:50		buy track
5.	Post Grass 02:45	info	buy track
6.	Raised and Erased 02:50		buy track
7.	Noumenon 04:21		buy track

about

Monocarpic is a biological term for plant types who follow the singular life succession of Flowering, Setting Seed, and Death. This descriptor, specific to those plants who will flower only once in their lives, potentially shares a common existential limit with a song. Whereas the replication of a song through analog or digital means is akin to a flower pressed into the pages of a book, so too is the authorship of a melody or verse like a bloom.

But what of its death?

Each song on this record has its own unique tuning and refers directly to that path of death.

Banjos in particular are fascinating in that they are often not required to be in any tuning that might be considered "standard". While there are certainly some tunings more frequently used than others, there are as many variants as there are artists who have sought them out. It can certainly be mystifying when artists are tuned to "F but a few steps down" or "G but with D tuned up to E" or by names such as "sawmill", but in its own little corner of the world, it is as common as apples in June. It is also common then to find listed next to a song on an album cover or liner notes a notation for the exact banjo tuning used for each song. It might look like this, f#DEAD. Each letter representing a string on the 5-string banjo. (the lower case letter representing the short drone string)

The difference in this record is you will find no notation of the exact tuning in use.

The tunings used here, and their development, are central to the theme of the record, and each song has its own. Each song begun as an exploration of finding a unique and interesting set of open string sounds. Plucking each string, matching them with another, one by one, twisting and turning the tuning knobs (and breaking alot of strings) until all 5 strings, played in concert, provided some spark of curiosity sufficient to find a song in its orientation.

When the song was completed, I wanted to experience, as close as I could approximate, the "death" of the song. I wanted to see if I could experience the biological imperative of monocarpica, through the life cycle of a song. This could be done through losing the first-pattern, the DNA of the song; the cosmologically unique tuning which is the songs origin. To that end, no effort was made to record the tuning, it was allowed to be lost when the song was completed. And so, the tension, or hold on each string was gently released. If they have a name it is the song itself.

credits

released October 6, 2023

This record would be impossible without incredible support of Eric Nyffeler and Jon Augustine. Also to my wife, my Kill County and Triggertown families, and so many others.

All recording, production, banjoing, singing by Ringo. Jon Augustine plays bass and Eric Nyffeler provided the layout and art. Thank you to Geology Records for the continued support.

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