Renowned Artist Taylor Deupree Shares “Snow/Sand”; Acoustic Rework of His Seminal 2002 Album ‘Sti.ll’ Out 5/17

Today, renowned artist, composer, and mastering engineer Taylor Deupree unveils another glimpse into Sti.ll, the meticulous acoustic reimagining of his seminal electronic album Stil. (2002), with the release of “snow/sand” (for Clarinets, Vibraphone, Cello & Percussion). The quartet painstakingly recreates the original synth drones and loops with mesmerizing precision. Where the original is stark and haunting with glitchy beeps, buzzes, and deep, synthetic hums, the rework finds a way to root the sounds on solid ground with dense layers of organic instruments, and no looping whatsoever. This brings a natural warmth that serves as a poignant contrast.

Pre-Save Sti.ll here:
https://taylordeupree.ffm.to/sti_ll.OPR

Listen to “snow/sand (for Clarinets, Vibraphone, Cello & Percussion)” here:
https://taylordeupree.ffm.to/snowsand

Sti.ll is a collaborative release between labels Nettwerk, Greyfade, and Deupree’s own 12k, due out on May 17th. Along with a vinyl release, Greyfade has announced a special edition hardcover book, the second installment in their FOLIO series that is available for pre-order on Bandcamp. The FOLIO includes an introduction by music journalist Philip Sherburne, essays by Deupree, arranger/producer Joseph Branciforte, and clarinetist Madison Greenstone reflecting on Sti.ll’s conception & creation, a complete reproduction of Branciforte’s arrangements in full score, studio photography by Deupree, and digital downloads of both Sti.ll and its predecessor Stil. (2002)—forming a comprehensive, completist’s guide to Deupree’s Stil. and its most recent transformations.

Deupree will bring the album to life at a special release show at Public Records in New York City, NY on May 22nd. Find tickets and more information at www.publicrecords.nyc.

Pre-Order Taylor Deupree’s Sti.ll (2024) Greyfade FOLIO Here:
https://www.greyfade.com/catalog/008

Taylor Deupree had long considered an acoustic remake of his 2002 album Stil.—one of the landmarks in the electronic musician’s prolific career. In many ways, the idea was paradoxical. Stil.’s identity—its sound and structure—was resolutely digital: digitally-generated electronic sounds, processed with laptop, looped endlessly in software as identical digital copies. What would it mean to recreate this essentially digital work using purely acoustic sounds and processes?

In 2022, with the 20-year anniversary of the album approaching, Deupree decided it was time to finally explore the idea. He reached out to GRAMMY-winning producer, arranger, and recording engineer Joseph Branciforte—whose work Deupree encountered through Branciforte’s previous acoustic adaptations of electronic works by composer Kenneth Kirschner—to see if he might be up for collaborating on the project.

“When Taylor first approached me about doing a remake of Stil.,” says Branciforte, “he only said two things: it had to be done completely acoustically, with real instruments, and it had to be played live—no looping in Pro Tools.”

Branciforte had himself been a fan of the original Stil., so much so that Deupree’s idea to remake the album initially gave him pause. He ultimately accepted Deupree’s invitation to arrange and produce the album, but with a caveat:

“I told Taylor it couldn’t just be some vague reference to the original… it can’t just be ‘sort of.’ There would have to be a serious attempt to grapple with the rhythmic, textural, and formal elements of the original, which is what makes that album so special and groundbreaking”

Thus begun a multi-year collaborative effort, involving painstaking transcription and reconstruction efforts by Branciforte, workshops and test recordings exploring traditional and extended acoustic techniques to capture Deupree’s electronic sounds, and the involvement of a half dozen of New York’s top classical and jazz musicians to bring the album’s intricate arrangements to life.

Far from being an academic exercise or mere tribute, however, Sti.ll forges novel sonic and conceptual ground of its own. The recording process that Deupree and Branciforte ultimately landed upon—recording each instrumental part in real-time, repeating Deupree’s small, looped phrases dozens of times—highlights minute differences in phrasing and timbre unique to live performance. It brings a focus on tactility and imperfection characteristic of Deupree’s later recordings to one of his most austere, process-based early works.

Although in its materials and process, Sti.ll could hardly be more different from its electronic predecessor, the project ultimately emphasizes a continuum within Deupree’s practice. As Philip Sherburne writes in his introduction to Greyfade’s FOLIO edition of Sti.ll: “Twenty-two years later, [Deupree’s] purpose remains the same: to create the illusion of time and movement at rest.”