Search Ensembles is a new evocative project of and/OAR founder / operator Dale Lloyd presenting “sonic archeology”, unearthing forgotten and previously unreleased recordings from project participants’ archives, plus new recordings to create a conceptually cohesive album. The name “Search Ensembles” is a play on the term “search parties” which means: “groups of people conducting an organized search for someone or something lost or hidden.” This first offering comes across as a collection of inexplicable field recordings pointing toward a mysterious ancient past - of people around the world, some of which we still know next to nothing about; some of which were able to accomplish feats still not properly explained or replicated to this day. After this first release, the intention for Search Ensembles is to continue sonic explorations inspired by, and/or pertaining to various mysteries around the world (and perhaps beyond).
For this release, Search Ensembles was Alan Courtis: field recordings, Cédric Peyronnet: field recordings, voice, objects, Cyril Herry: objects, voices, Dale Lloyd: field recordings, objects, percussion, production, slide whistle, synthesizer, voice, David Tobin: percussion, slide whistle, violin, voice, Jani Hirvonen: electronics, Jon Tulchin: field recordings, Katerina Nejepsova: flute, Loren Chasse: field recording, flute, percussion, Michael Northam: field recordings, Petr ‘Pedro’ Tuzar: guitar, Phil Legard: banjo, drum, psaltry, Slavek Kwi: analog echo, banjo, monotar, percussion, tapes, Stuart Arentzen: electronics.