Christian Mirande - Beautiful One Day, Perfect the Next LP

Beautiful One Day, Perfect The Next is a tale of two halves and represents a significant development in Mirande’s practice as it combines a move towards a more musical approach while retaining his customary use of field recordings, spoken word and synth explorations.

The A-side consists of a number of seven queasy, iridescent synthesis pieces and haphazard interludes, bookended by two vocal pieces. The nauseous pitch-bent sonics and vocal musings have us wondering if there could have been a Werkbund record on Lovely Music, or recalls Paul De Marinis’ Music As a Second Language, whilst ‘Can’t Close My Hand In This Dream’ breaks up the inorganic sound with vinyl crackle and out of tune piano.

The B-side is occupied entirely by the title piece, opening with cool, electronics before developing into rolling ride cymbals, a driving bassline and streams of collaged spoken word reflections on childhood, loss and marine life.

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Christian Mirande (b. 1986) is an experimental musician from Philadelphia. He has used magnetic tape, various audio synthesis methods, and instruments including the fretless bass and the iphone voice memo. His work is often characterised as textural or atmospheric and deals with themes such as memory, loss, and faith.

He has been a member of the groups Open Corner and The Flea Circus and has previously released works on Hanson Records, Recital, Vitrine and Glistening Examples.

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Regional Bears is a label established in 2017 and currently based in. Stockport, UK. Until now, all of its releases have been on cassette and digital. It has released works by Vanessa Rossetto, Idea Fire Company, Matthew Sullivan and Sean McCann amongst many others.

“One of the most expertly curated cassette labels of the moment, and every batch is an opportunity to peer into its confounding world of homespun concrete, spoken word curios and tape music detritus” – The Wire

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For Fans Of – Out Of The Blue by Blue Gene Tyranny, Private Parts by Robert Ashley, Asmus Tietchens