Sun Araw
The working title of the project helmed by former Austinite and Magic Lantern member Cameron Stallones, Sun Araw has drawn compelling comparisons to such varied sources as Afro-beat, Neil Young, and Spacemen 3.
The working title of the project helmed by former Austinite and Magic Lantern member Cameron Stallones, Sun Araw has drawn compelling comparisons to such varied sources as Afro-beat, Neil Young, and Spacemen 3.
Padre, fammi partire! (a tribute to Franco Battiato)
“Padre, fammi partire!” (Father, make me leave!). Franco Battiato, orphan of a father, sings this verse in "Da Orienta a Occidente". He declaims it solemnly and decisively. More than a request for a blessing, it is a declaration of intent. The force with which this prayer is recited admits of no weakness, no compromise and no obstacle. To leave is necessary. The volcano is there, showing the way. The power of this phrase reflects the impatience of a hawk that, tied to the arm of its falconer, wa…
Lifetime
Sun Araw’s tenth studio album, Lifetime, continues to investigate space as a motionless field against which many motions are observed! Stasis: wheels within and wheels without! “Dripping Magnetizations! Arcs of Slowing Rotations!” Two LPs at 45 RPM. Mixed by Cameron Stallones & Jake Viator, Mastered by JJ Golden. Please enjoy this adventure in sound.
Cetacean Sensation
The long running vessel for Cameron Stallones' psychedelic excursions, Sun Araw, returns to Discrepant after last year's split with Tarzana via Keroxen sister label (KRXN033). Without much precedent in his own - already wide-ranging - back-catalog, 'Cetacean Sensation' discards the dubby vibes, psych-rock sunburnt jams, tropical visions, or stalking sensibilities of such classic efforts as 'On Patrol' or 'Ancient Romans' towards a deeply focused and vivid solitary approach, while still retaining…
Sun Ark Prayer Tapes, Vol. 1 & 2
*100 copies limited edition* Sun Araw first released the Prayer Tapes in two separate volumes back in 2012, a set of long form improvisational solo work you would easily be forgiven for missing given the prolific activity of Cameron Stallones around that turn of the decade period. They're more than worth a revisit now, heady, zoned-out excursions that seem to emerge in a fog of purple-y gloom. It's typically humid exploratory work from Stallones, that beautifully dense Sun Araw sound that plays …
Fantasias for Violin & Guitar
Estonian violinist & singer Maarja Nuut & LA’s psyche-experimentator Sun Araw hand in gentle, unpolished improvisations on their collaborative album “Fantasias for Violin & Guitar” recorded live on location by Jackson Bailey aka Tapes. Brought together by Tallinn’s IDA Radio under the umbrella of a 10-day sound residency in magnificent Narva Art Residency on the border of Estonia & Russia, Maarja Nuut & Sun Araw set up their gear to jump head first into unknown territory of live-improvisation.
D…
Rock Sutra
Sun Araw released Rock Sutra, via Sun Ark, his Drag City sub-label. Cameron Stallones' latest LP consists of four long tracks. "The music is offered in a spirit of generosity and adventure," he says, "It doesn't stay put, and it keeps zooming in to reveal more and more. This is so you can zoom in and experience 'feeling-without-articulating' for yourself, which is better than reading about it here."
Rock Sutra is the first album Stallones recorded live-to-MIDI with his band, which consists of Jo…
The Inner Treaty
**CD edition** With the wake of his blessed collab with The Congos and his 'Ancient Romans' side still shimmering in our memory, Cameron Stallones returns from his mystic regressions to present a sixth solo LP as Sun Araw. With his return comes a startlingly fresh-faced clarity to his sound, as though millenia of metaphysical sonic travel have dislodged the overbuild of dusty amp wax and really let some cosmic sunshine thru. It's perhaps also down to some assistance in the final process from Pet…
Guarda In Alto
Double LP version. Three-sided with etching on fourth side. Cameron Stallones, aka Sun Araw, is the quintessential contemporary cosmic courier. Emerging from the fumes of an ancient Egyptian civilization and now settled in one of the meccas of the American lysergic experience, Austin, Texas, he boasts an endless discography and collaborations with luminaries of the caliber of Laraaji (a solo new age traveler discovered by Brian Eno) and the legendary Rastafarian group, Congos. For the soundtrack…
the saddle of the increate
With only a few trips made on Sean McCann’s Music For Public Ensemble and alongside Laraaji on Professional Sunflower and the S. Araw “Trio” XIII to quench our thirst in the meantime, this loosely strung and sprawling set renders Cameron Stallones and the gang at their most ir/reverent and dare we say, North American; delivering a subtly funny and playful suite that’s more Billy Crystal on magic beans than Alejandro Jodorowsky on mescaline, as far as desert trips go.
Incorporating a phalan…
Professional Sunflow
Professional Sunflow is the first-time collaboration between Laraaji & Sun Araw, two colossal forces in contemporary electronic music. Laraaji's musical radiance has continued to shine brightly over four decades since being discovered by Brian Eno in New York's Washington Square Park in 1979. Sun Araw emerged out of Los Angeles' experimental scene in 2008 with transformative releases on a variety of trend-setting labels (Not Not Fun, Drag City and more).The live performances on this double LP – …
Belomancie
Sun Araw yields his most cryptic glyph to date with 'Belomancie' for Drag City. Replete with a recommendation "to give 'Belomancie' your full attention, and to listen at the highest volume that is comfortable on high quality speakers with a pronounced stereo field or on an excellent pair of headphones", it's the most cerebral and focussed effort we've yet heard from Cameron Stallones', acutely contrasting with his looser, noisier psychedelic dub excursions. Its predominantly electronic palette a…
On Patrol
On Patrol, originally released in 2010, is a double album in two parts, and the fourth full length album from Sun Araw. An album for heavy-steamin' late nights in the city, inter-dimensional back alleys, ghost cabs; it creeps and tunes in on a much darker, sparser, and more classically minded channel than its predecessors: dark and deep steam-vent ruminations on Phil Cohran, lenticular objects, and fried Hot 92.3 R&B slow-jams. A cold bug makes a real 'live wire.
Ancient Romans
Delicious album of stoned psyche from Camerone Stallones, his first solo full length since last year's massive 'On Patrol'. In the meantime he's released some well received and diverse collaborations with Matthewdavid and Eternal Tapestry, but really, he's at his very best when left to own devices and free to wander bleary eyed and dopey through the sun baked dub soundscapes of his mind. It's so hard to escape any imagery of bacchanalian dream sequences given the sleeve and track titles, …
Beach Head
Originally issued in a limited pressing in 2008, BEACH HEAD is a release of sunburnt affection for a place that has since submerged: a coastal constellation of friends and energies that still slosh and burn through dimensions just above our perceptual apparatus. These are the coordinates, should you want to go: THOUGHTS ARE BELLS opens in séance before easing back into full Florian blossom. HORSE STEPPIN’ is a love song to Neil Young’s six-string gateway: sunblushed and indulgent, persistently b…
Off Duty
As if the music of lysergic, lo-fi drugdub one man band Sun Araw wasn't flipped out and damaged enough, on this latest joint, those already tweaked and twisted sounds get even more far out, the vibe WAY druggier and spacier, a 26 minute blast of crumbling wah-guitar laced psychdub comedown in the form of three skull caving soul freeing innerspace excursions."Last Chants" begins with a dense swirling cloud of white noise and damaged effects, shot through with barely there melodies, and loose detu…
Heavy Deeds
Sun Araw - and the Not Not Fun label in general for that matter - are becoming ever more essential with each release. Heavy Deeds is the latest dubbed-out, tropical psych missive from this far-out collective, featuring an increasingly mature approach to experimental queasiness, which on this occasion is reminiscent of fellow solar travellers Sunburned Hand Of The Man knocking heads together with Sun Ra. There's some incredible wah-wah funk to be found here, jostling amongst a barrage of synapse-…
Boat Trip
Boat Trip might be some hidden soundtrack to Donkey Kong warp-whistling straight into Ayahuasca Country. In about twenty minutes Sun Araw manages to navigate a psychedelic jungle cruise through canopy din & spooked drone, then he noses the boat out of the water and lifts into uncharted dub-spheres. The back half of this entranced tour is like being (fortunately) trapped inside an old Upsetters jam played at half-speed with twice the shaman-chant and reverb drenched percussion. Normally w…