About Peals
Baltimore City
Peals is a music project consisting of William Cashion (Future Islands) and Bruce Willen (Double Dagger). The duo crafts meditative and exploratory headphone panoramas, incorporating elements of ambient, folk, krautrock, punk, and experimental music. Peals’ live performances strive to create an intimate atmosphere, embracing art galleries, living rooms, and back porches. They have performed in a number of unconventional spaces,… more
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Walking Field
"Peals' debut, Walking Field, is a meditative and exploratory headphone panorama of the highest order. From the first moment, they set aside the basses of their high-profile post-punk outfits for acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards, tambourines, toy pianos, and other sonic tools in pursuit of a stripped-down, warm living-room atmosphere.
The music that sprang from these sessions, simultaneously exultant and cerebral, took the duo into unexpected territory. While the emotional intensity of their other projects is on full display here, its more gentle, melancholic and often abstract expression recalls Robin Guthrie and minimalist recordings from the sonic pioneers of the 1970s German scene - all direct inspirations for Peals as the songs that would become Walking Field took shape.
Walking Field’s home-recorded sessions followed an analog approach, welcoming the happy accidents and unplanned moments that bring their music’s most organic qualities to the fore. With no bass guitars or drums present on the album—all percussion sounds were generated by contact with guitars and microphones—the emphasis here is placed on texture and feeling.
Songs flow one into the next, talking to each other as they take the listener on an intuitive journey to destinations unknown. The chiming guitars of “Tiptoes in the Parlor” flirt with the layered melodies and heroic peaks of Dustin Wong, while tracks like “Believers” venture into a more challenging electronic headspace. Throughout, hidden corners are illuminated with the incorporation of field recordings, the crackle of walkie-talkies, and unexpected bursts of feedback. On tracks "Pendelles" and "Koan 1," the addition of cello from Kate Barutha (member of Adam Lempel and the Heartbeats and Soft Cat; guest on recordings by Future Islands, Small Sur, and Weekends) adds a complex dimension of modern classical to the album’s sonic palette.
Peals’ live performances strive to create an intimate atmosphere, embracing art galleries and back porches in smaller towns off the usual tour circuit. Their expressive and exhilarating debut record reflects this shift in sensibility. Walking Field is headphone music for summer afternoons and cold winter nights; a soundtrack for deserted beaches and wooded campfires; the feeling of a sunrise alone, or a sunset with a close circle of friends. This is Peals: something wholly new and unexpected from the ever-fertile Baltimore scene."
-- Thrill Jockey Records
1. Floating Leaf
2. Blue Elvis
3. Belle Air
4. Pendelles
5. Tiptoes in the Parlor
6. Lonestar
7. Believers
8. Koan 1
The music that sprang from these sessions, simultaneously exultant and cerebral, took the duo into unexpected territory. While the emotional intensity of their other projects is on full display here, its more gentle, melancholic and often abstract expression recalls Robin Guthrie and minimalist recordings from the sonic pioneers of the 1970s German scene - all direct inspirations for Peals as the songs that would become Walking Field took shape.
Walking Field’s home-recorded sessions followed an analog approach, welcoming the happy accidents and unplanned moments that bring their music’s most organic qualities to the fore. With no bass guitars or drums present on the album—all percussion sounds were generated by contact with guitars and microphones—the emphasis here is placed on texture and feeling.
Songs flow one into the next, talking to each other as they take the listener on an intuitive journey to destinations unknown. The chiming guitars of “Tiptoes in the Parlor” flirt with the layered melodies and heroic peaks of Dustin Wong, while tracks like “Believers” venture into a more challenging electronic headspace. Throughout, hidden corners are illuminated with the incorporation of field recordings, the crackle of walkie-talkies, and unexpected bursts of feedback. On tracks "Pendelles" and "Koan 1," the addition of cello from Kate Barutha (member of Adam Lempel and the Heartbeats and Soft Cat; guest on recordings by Future Islands, Small Sur, and Weekends) adds a complex dimension of modern classical to the album’s sonic palette.
Peals’ live performances strive to create an intimate atmosphere, embracing art galleries and back porches in smaller towns off the usual tour circuit. Their expressive and exhilarating debut record reflects this shift in sensibility. Walking Field is headphone music for summer afternoons and cold winter nights; a soundtrack for deserted beaches and wooded campfires; the feeling of a sunrise alone, or a sunset with a close circle of friends. This is Peals: something wholly new and unexpected from the ever-fertile Baltimore scene."
-- Thrill Jockey Records
1. Floating Leaf
2. Blue Elvis
3. Belle Air
4. Pendelles
5. Tiptoes in the Parlor
6. Lonestar
7. Believers
8. Koan 1
Time Is A Milk Bowl
We collaborated with multimedia artist Zoe Friedman on an installation and performance in the clock room of Baltimore's Bromo Seltzer Tower. We composed and performed a 30 minute score to accompany a video installation consisting of seven projections on all four walls of the Clock Room in the Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower. The videos were played simultaneously on all four walls of the room. Our performance incorporated and responded to the mechanical sounds of the elevator and clock machinery.
We also recreated the piece at Pioneer Works in New York City and at Studio 1469 in Washington, DC.
We also recreated the piece at Pioneer Works in New York City and at Studio 1469 in Washington, DC.
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Time is A Milk Bowl (excerpt) Live at Studio 1469, Washington DC JAN 18, 2015
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Time Is A Milk Bowl montageVideo and animations by Zoe Friedman and excerpts from Peals' performance in the Bromo Seltzer Tower clock room.
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Time is a Milk Bowl performancePhoto by Sarah Templin
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Time is a Milk Bowl performancePhoto by Sarah Templin
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TIme Is A Milk Bowl live performanceFirst performance at the Bromo Seltzer Tower. April 19, 2013
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Zoe Friedman & PealsPhoto by Bruce Willen
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Bruce Willen & WIlliam Cashion of Peals in the Bromo Seltzer TowerPhoto by Bruce Willen
Night Train to Tucson/Believers II
7" single featuring 2 compositions, "Night Train to Tucson" & "Believers II." We recorded both songs at Bruce's house. The first 50 copies were printed on yellow vinyl.
Released May 2013 on Thrill Jockey Records.
Released May 2013 on Thrill Jockey Records.