Records: Rothko Spaces, Volume 3 by Stephan Thelen & Jon Durant
"There is only one thing I fear in life, my friend: One day, the black will swallow the red.” (Mark Rothko)
On April 25, 2024, three days after Markus Reuter and I recorded his tracks for Rothko Spaces Volume 2, I flew to Portland, Oregon, to record with Jon Durant and engineer Gus Berry at Dead Aunt Thelma’s Studio. The first three pieces Jon improvised became the foundations for Parts 1, 2 and 4 of this album.
When I returned to Switzerland, I was mainly busy with a major move to Romania, the homeland of my wife Simona. So it wasn’t until August when we stayed at her parents’ house in the Carpathian Mountains (near Count Dracula’s castle in Bran) that I was able to edit and orchestrate the four tracks on this album, mainly using organ, string and voice samples from the iconic Niguliste church in Tallinn, Estonia.
Special thanks to Bill Walker for playing additional guitar on Part 3. His tracks were recorded by John Karr at Pleasure Point Studios in Santa Cruz, California, on April 28, 2024, two days after our recording session in Portland.
Stephan Thelen, September 14, 2024, Sătic, Romania
releases January 10, 2025
Jon Durant: Fretless and Fretted Guitar, Clouds & Strings.
Stephan Thelen: Organ, Tubular Bells, Timpani, Gongs, Strings & Voices
Bill Walker: additional guitar on Part 3
All tracks written by Durant/Thelen except Part 3 written by Durant/Thelen/Walker
Edited, Mixed & Mastered by Stephan Thelen, August 2024 in Sâtic, Romania
Cover art and layout by studioflokati.de
Stephan Thelen is a composer, producer and mathematician based in Zürich, Switzerland. His activities are split into three main areas: 1) as composer, artistic director and guitarist of the Swiss minimal groove band SONAR, 2) as producer and guitarist for his Fractal Guitar and Fractal Sextet projects and 3) as composer of postminimal music ("Circular Lines", commisioned by the KRONOS QUARTET).