Stoic, by Patient Hands

Stoic

by Patient Hands

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Glass I knew after very few seconds that I'm going to love this album. And I do. Very much. Favorite track: The Poisoner.

Joshu A welcome entrance into and interruption of a music culture trafficking in over-attended makers and attention-poor listeners. Stoic is a stunning exercise in harmonized contradiction, a gift capable of surviving the giving. For fans of Sufjan Stevens, Grouper, and Benoit Pioulard. Favorite track: I Shaved My Father's Face.

witnessfan a mesmerizing piece of storytelling

	/

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Cassette + Digital Album
2 colours of cassettes available: smoke-grey, and silver glitter. Please specify which you would like when you order. Limited to 200 copies total.

Includes unlimited streaming of Stoic via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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Ultra soft 100% cotton Next Level Apparel long sleeve shirt. Full colour direct to garment print on the front, silkscreen on the back. Unisex sizing. Shirt is fairly long. Fit is slim.

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edition of 42

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Full Digital Discography

Get all 3 Patient Hands releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of There Are No Graves Here, Stasis (Reissue), and Stoic. , and , .

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Special Limited Edition Zine + Tape
Full colour - 8.5" x 5.5" - 24 page zine, complete with photos, lyrics, and liner notes. Each zine is hand bound by me - sewn with waxed linen - numbered and signed. Includes cassette tape. Limited to 20 copies.

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1.	At Parting 03:46	lyrics	buy track
Calling, Calming, Sounds like, My name Don't leave my sight Don't leave my sight Coming, Silent, Looks like, My face Don't leave my sight Don't leave my sight Don’t leave my sight Don’t leave my sight
2.	I Shaved My Father's Face 06:43	lyrics	buy track
Masturbating, In a bar bathroom, Why did I call myself, 'Living Room'? Shaman's cataract eyes - Didn't grandfather die? Didn’t grandfather die... This pit in my throat: A swollen lymph node, That I can't swallow away, I can't swallow away…
3.	Anaesthetic 05:23	lyrics	buy track
What's eating my insides? Your voice – a silent sigh? Hold your breath, ‘Featherhead’ I'm here, I'm here Let go, Of waiting for the guide stone, I'm here, I'm here
4.	Envelopment 03:48		buy track
5.	Say Stay 04:21	lyrics	buy track
Say stay, How long have you been having to pay? I'm not really this age, Incubating in a ‘skull-shaped cage’ Whispering your name, When no one's listening, Whispering your name You can't hear me, Drowning screaming suffering, I froze, And my lips came closed Whispering your name, When no one's listening, Whispering your name
6.	The Poisoner 05:13	lyrics	buy track
I am my own murderer - The ‘poisoner,’ It's that story I know - It's me, I'm holding onto shadows. I'm a waking rush - Hushed, Moving through space, Holding my shape, Hold my arms in my Mom and Dad's sarong, Keep quiet, Sit still. They're all gone They're all gone They're all gone They're all gone
7.	The Pale 04:54		buy track
8.	Something Vanishing 05:29	lyrics	buy track
Hear me, Breathing, I surrender, I surrender Here now - My ears ringing, I surrender, I surrender
9.	Calm 03:29	lyrics	buy track
Calloused, Enough of this, Put me down, I give up the ground Anxious eyes, Announce themselves, I'm sorry, That I've been pulled apart All this time We've been losing him All this time We've been losing him We've been losing him We've been losing him

about

“To be clear, this is a masterpiece.”
- Note.mu (Translated from the Japanese)

“Anchored by a steadily picked acoustic guitar, Stooshinoff sounds both calm and confident.”
- Exclaim!

“Patient Hands…has created something magical with Stoic. There is both poignancy and humour here for at its heart Stoic is a record about overcoming depression. “
- [Sic] Magazine

“It’s not easy to make a great song, but on this record, Patient Hands have done it.”
- Uproxx

“While employing some of the musical tropes that have drawn in sadbois and sadgurls across the globe, Patient Hand’s Stoic immediately separates itself from the pack with striking honesty and lyrical individualisms. What other Spotify-core song would dare open with “Masturbating/in a bar bathroom/Why did I call myself Living Room” (in the slow-starting but eventually anthemic “I Shaved My Father’s Face”)!?"
- Dominionated

Preface:

Stoic begins in the dark.

I lost myself somewhere inside me. I was a foreigner; a refugee. But I had nowhere to run to, and nowhere to leave. I couldn’t find love for myself, or anyone else. I became physically ill for at least eleven months. I had a brush with cancer, and I was overcome by emptiness. I tried to get back to who I knew myself to be before the illness by walking the Camino de Santiago. I tried to force a change, but found that I couldn't.

I have many explanations for that time - shamanism talks of a trauma that makes one leave her body, therapists might reduce it to depression, Christian mystics call it “The Dark Night of the Soul” - I, facetiously, called it “Stoic Summer 2014.” But ‘Stoic’ also describes the person I had become. And I found I was powerless to change myself in that state – all I could do was surrender. It’s been years now since I left that space, but sometimes it visits me still. And I continue to find new ways to understand it.

I recorded the bulk of Stoic immediately after I came out of it. I had a newfound energy that felt like nothing I’d ever experienced, and I poured everything I had into the recording sessions. The ambition was to make a record I could be content with were I never to record again. Whether or not I succeeded, there remains something special about those sessions.

Stoic, then, is a document of those years of my life. It was a world I visited, and a private conversation I had with myself.

The album walks a line between self-satire and sincerity perhaps best captured in “I Shaved My Father’s Face” and “The Poisoner”. It’s full of references and humour that only I am ‘in’ on. In a way, I don’t expect the record to make sense to anyone else. But maybe that’s okay.

In the end, Stoic is a love record. It’s about enduring the dark night, and finding the courage to live with an open heart. I hope it speaks to you.

- Alex Stooshinoff,
Montreal, November 2018

credits

released February 15, 2019

All Music Written & Performed by Alex Stooshinoff;
Except Drums Written and Performed by Jordan Esau;
Piano on “At Parting” Written by Alex Stooshinoff and Performed by Craig Horan
Produced by Alex Stooshinoff
Recorded by Alex Stooshinoff;
Except Drums and Acoustic & Nylon String Guitars Recorded by Jordan Esau at the Hive, Montreal, QC.
Vocals on "I Shaved My Father's Face" recorded by Mike Gore at the Sweat Shoppe, Saskatoon, SK.
Mixed by Alex Stooshinoff, with Assistance from Jordan Esau
Mastered by Gus Elg at Sky Onion Studios, Portland, OR.
Cover Photograph by Jelena Markovic
Photo Editing by Kyle Grimsrud-Manz

Recorded between 2014-2018.
Field recordings taken along the Camino de Santiago in Spain.

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about

Patient Hands Montreal, Québec

Patient Hands is the solo-project of ambient musician & songwriter Alexander Stooshinoff. A Russian Doukhobor originally from the Canadian Prairies, Stooshinoff relocated to Montréal in 2015, where he earned a degree in philosophy and electroacoustics. Stooshinoff self-released his debut album "Stoic" in early 2019, with Japanese outlet Note.mu calling it a "...masterpiece.” ... more

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