Artist: Micah Frank

Title: Quetico
Release Date: July 25th, 2019
URL: puremagnetik.bandcamp.com
Formats: Cassette, Digital
Contact: hello@puremagnetik.com
For Immediate Release
XXX XX, 2019

Quetico, from Micah Frank, Out Now on Puremagnetik Tapes

Puremagnetik Tapes, the recording arm of music software maker Puremagnetik—known for its library of unique in-
struments and effects—is pleased to announce its fourth release: Quetico, from musician Micah Frank, the founder
and head of Puremagnetik.

Quetico will be available June 13 on limited edition cassette and digital download via Bandcamp, and through Spotify
and other streaming services. Pre-orders begin July 16th, 2019.

“QUETICO takes you on an adventure”

Quetico is is a flagship recording for the label and lies close to the roots of Puremagnetik. Frank himself considers
the album to be collection of "sound sculptures,” sonic objects in part assembled and in part sculpted from the basics
of waveforms, timbres, and the concrete sound-objects of field recordings.

At Puremagnetik, Frank captures, preserves, and transforms sounds that other musicians and producers can use,
and he has applied that same process to Quetico. “Almost all of the tracks,” he explains, “were at least partially real-
ized through a custom built granular Csound environment that I spent two months coding.” (Csound is a free music
programming language and system that is used by academic electronic composers and Aphex Twin alike. In the
community/collaborative spirit of the system, Frank will make his Csound program available on his Github page as an
open source project.)

The field recordings on Quetico include the sounds of geysers in Yellowstone, experiences of the night in Big Sur,
and pieces from other wilderness environments. Frank then processed these through tape loops and his granular
Csound program. He describes the final step as ayering these textures and timbres—without “predefined harmonic
parts” and rhythms—through generative processes and improvisations, methods that he has been moving ever closer
to in his music making.

The two sides of Quetico are made up of six tracks. Side A features “Metameric Clutch,” which hums, lows, and sings
like an enormous wind organ with a distant, looping throb underneath, like an endless freight train in the night. As an
uncanny result of Frank’s generative processes, the layers of sound come together into a shimmering, harmonic
mass that itself pushes out bits of melodies.

Side B is, in Frank’s words, “more abstract and sound design-ish, and was heavily inspired by the acousmatic sound
work of Bernard Parmegiani.” Field recordings are a clear element to the side, which includes the two-part “A Sun Will
Always Sing,” which in elegant acousmatic fashion evokes place and time while removed from its specific origins.

A classic ambient record, Quetico expands through space and unfolds in time, and its dimensions define their own
unique place, one that exists for the duration of the album. Frank advises it is best heard through a “multi-speaker or
ambisonic sound system,” and adds “my hope is that Quetico is a cohesive listening experience that takes you on an
adventure.”
 Artist: Micah Frank
Title: Quetico
Release Date: July 25th, 2019
URL: puremagnetik.bandcamp.com
Formats: Cassette, Digital
Contact: hello@puremagnetik.com

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Micah Frank, Quetico (Puremagnetik Tapes, July 25, 2019)

1. “Silver Straights”
2. “Metameric Clutch”
3. “Five Mile Night”
4. “A Sun Will Always Sing - Morning”
5. “A Sun Will Always Sing - Evening”
6. “Three Dreams”

Puremagnetik Tapes webpage: https://puremagnetik.com/collections/tapes

Puremagnetik Tapes at Bandcamp: https://puremagnetik.bandcamp.com

Micah Frank webpage: https://www.micahfrank.com