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The premises behind this second album in 2017 by the Telescopes are truly intriguing. The record inaugurates a series of publications by Yard Press dedicated to music. The collection, curated by Giandomenico Carpentieri, arises from the desire to create a series of records in which the artists involved develop their most experimental and conceptual projects without any creative limitations, in line with the production model of the label, which historically prioritizes the editorial approach before the object of production itself. The project is very interesting and in some way recalls a successful initiative by the Dutch label Konkurrent ('In The Fishtank'), which between the late nineties and up until 2009 involved some of the most relevant artists of the period (Nomeansno, Tortoise, The Ex, June of 44, Low, Dirty Three, Sonic Youth, Sparklehorse...) with publications of a series of short recordings of up to two days where each artist had free rein in terms of any possible experimentation.
'Stone Tape' is conceptually built on the 'Stone Tape Theory' (1961) by archaeologist, parapsychologist, and explorer Thomas Charles Lethbridge, according to which inanimate materials can absorb and store (and reproduce under certain conditions) mental energy of an electrical nature from living beings, released during emotional and/or traumatic events. Stephen Lawrie has developed the concept into six tracks all permeated with spectral suggestions, manifesting in the form of psychedelic litanies ('Become The Sun', 'Dead Inside', 'Silent Water', 'The Desert In Your Heart') or abstract post-industrial expressionism derived from Jackson Pollock's visions ('Everything Must Be', 'The Speaking Stones').
Released last November 20th in a limited edition of 500 copies, 'Stone Tape' is an album conceived, written, recorded, and produced solely by Stephen Lawrie, an artist who has always given voice to the ghosts of our minds and our obsessions through his music, transforming them into soundscapes laden with noise abstractions and drone fury, which once again reign supreme and form that spectral echo characteristic of the sound of one of the greatest and perhaps less appreciated bands of the last thirty years.
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