As the one particular-man operation guiding Portland-centered Moon Glyph Records—a top curator of ambient, new age, and “transportive psychedelia”—Steve Rosborough juggles unique roles and responsibilities.
He works with artists placing out their songs and designs out the label’s hectic launch program. He handles distribution and creation of cassettes and LPs, as nicely as promoting and advertising endeavours. He manages Moon Glyph’s funds and other usual little-company responsibilities. He even does the the greater part of the art and graphic layout for the label and its releases, which selection over 130 since Rosborough started out Moon Glyph in 2009.
So when he sits down to make his possess new music less than the title Omni Gardens, Rosborough attempts to use the procedure as an possibility to sluggish down, scale again, and declutter. Influenced by the brevity and workmanlike technique of prolific indie rock songwriter Robert Pollard (of Guided by Voices), Rosborough endeavors to not get bogged down in little facts and sound design.
“You do it for a very little little bit and then end, and if an strategy does not function out, then whatever—you move on to the up coming issue,” he claimed. “I just wanted to simplify and cease overthinking factors.”
Through the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic–in pursuit of “relaxed household listening for tough times”–Rosborough designed a 2nd Omni Gardens album, Moss King, using largely a solitary synth: the Moog Grandmother.
“It’s not able of a ton, but it seems excellent,” he said. “I think owning that limitation truly assisted my system, due to the fact I wouldn’t toil absent at tweaking minor things. I was targeted a good deal more on, like, ‘Is this melody operating?’”
Indeed, Rosborough’s melodies are reliably enchanting, and Moss King was a surprise hit, offering properly and landing on influential lists of 2020’s ideal albums.
The interest placed a little bit more force on Rosborough as he went to work on his most recent Omni Gardens album, Golden Pear, a 12-observe assortment of relatively shorter, meditative tunes designed from heat, arpeggiated synth tones, bleary aspiration-zones, and some new appears, like vibraphones, marimbas, and industry recordings. Urgent enjoy on the album is like remaining dropped into a beautifully serene, self-contained globe wherever German digital composer Hans-Joachim Roedelius is a home name, beloved by all.
Golden Pear can take a succinct approach to ambient and new age tunes, exactly where keep track of lengths that extend past 10 minutes are prevalent. All but a person song clocks in below three and a 50 percent minutes, which helps make it a beautiful, laid-back listen that does not demand a highly produced awareness span.
“I want Omni Gardens’ new music, in typical, to experience like a lazy afternoon or your most loved sweater,” Rosborough claimed. “You know, like a type of cozy, fuzzy emotion.”
In a wide perception, that describes significantly of the tunes that will come out on Moon Glyph Records, no matter whether it is floaty flute songs for nationwide parks or percussive electronic experiments or atmospheric ambient music or out-there religious jazz. Around the a long time, Rosborough has cultivated a crystal clear aesthetic for the label, a single that addresses a whole lot of ground but even now feels incredibly Moon Glyph.
“I’ve been definitely pleased with how the label has evolved, and it does come to feel like far more and far more people today are examining it out and listening to the new music,” he claimed.
“It would seem like individuals will check out out new releases on the label just since they’re on the label, and that’s eventually my goal (because) I found so substantially music that way,” Rosborough continued. “That’s what I preferred to emulate, you know? To be a area wherever someone can be like, ‘I know the basic vibe of this label and they’re placing out a new thing, so as a result I’ll give it a shot.’”
Omni Gardens opens for Roy Werner as section of a unique exhibit at Leach Botanical Gardens, 6704 SE 122nd, Sunlight Feb 11, $33 per human being, free with membership to Feels Like Floating, tickets below, all ages, w/ Patricia Wolf