Hermetic Jukebox

'Hermetic Jukebox Cover'
Label:    Fabled Quixote
Voiceprint:    USR102CD
ASIN:    B00006L5DQ

This is a two-disc set that brings together the Orchestra Arcana recordings.  The first disc was originally released as "Iconography", the second disc
was released as "Optimism."  Available through Voiceprint, Amazon (US), and Amazon (UK).  Links to these sites are listed in the Bill Nelson Record Store.

Iconography

  1. Christ Via Wires
  2. Clock Conscious
  3. I Wonder
  4. Eastern Electric
  5. Search and Listen
  6. News from Nowhere
  7. One Man's Fetish is Another Man's Faith
  8. Right, Then Left
  9. Iconography
  10. The God's Speak
  11. Life Class
  12. Altar Natives
  13. Sex, Psyche, Etcetera
  14. Several Famous Orchestras
  15. Who He Is

Optimism

  1. Exactly the Way You Want It
  2. Why be Lonely
  3. Everyday Is a Better Day
  4. The Receiver and the Fountain Pen
  5. Welcome Home Mr. Kane
  6. This is True
  7. Greeting a New Day
  8. The Breath in my Father's Saxophone
  9. Our Lady of Apparitions
  10. The Whole City Between Us
  11. Deva Dance
  12. Always Looking Forward to Tomorrow
  13. World thru' Fast Car Window
  14. Profile, Hearts, Stars
  15. Daughter of Dream Come True
  16. Alchemia
  17. Um, Ah Good Evening
  18. Kut Up in Cartoonsville
  19. Short Wave

Bill's comments from the liner booklet:

In 1984, I began a series of recordings, at my eight-track and tape-based home studio, which I would eventually release under the pseudonym of 'Orchestra Arcana' on my own Cocteau Records label.  The first of these recordings was in the form of a 12" EP released in 1985 and titled 'Sec, Psyche, Etcetera.'  This was followed by two full-length albums under the 'Orchestra Arcana' name, the first, (in 1986) called 'Iconography' and the second, the following year, called 'Optimism.'  These recordings have been unavailable for several years and are gathered together here as a single, complete package for the first time.

Whilst they reflect the extremely basic, 'lo-fi' nature of my home studio at that time, I have always been ford of them.  The recordings made use of 'found' sounds and voice samples without the aid of today's digital sampling equipment, relying on ingenuity, rather than technology.  Tape loops were employed, plus physical tape editing, trapped delays, memo-recorders and so on, to achieve these ends.  Despite such restrictions, they processes seemed to be more immediate in effect and much quicker in execution than the digital/computer manipulations of modern studio technology.  I think of it as a more intimate way of handling one's sonic base materials, a way that involves getting one's hand dirty rather than manipulation the material at a clinical, digital distance...as it if were some radioactive isotope on the other side of a glass screen.

Of course, like nearly everyone else, my home studio is now an almost exclusively digital domain.  There are times, however, when I miss the old analogue, tape-based approach.  These recordings serve as a reminder to me that expensive technology isn't always the key to creativity.  18 years after their conception, the Orchestra Arcana recordings still pleasantly surprise.  I hope they will surprise you too.

Bill Nelson, September 2002

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