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There Are No Graves Here

by Patient Hands

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1.
Opening 03:11
2.
No Graves 05:59
3.
Dinner 01:26
4.
On Hiatus 01:04
5.
Supper 01:26
6.
7.
8.
Not Wake Up 04:26
9.
10.
11.
Moment i 04:07
12.
Moment ii 01:48
13.

about

A Preface:

There Are No Graves Here is a record of musical aphorisms for heartbreak and homelessness, dying mothers, and all the ambiguity.

The album title came from a recording that a professor of mine played in class. I heard the line “there are no graves here,” and it stuck with me. The idea of ‘no grave’ became a metaphor for feeling like I had no place to bury the past. The past was constantly alive. At the time, I was grieving a relationship that I’d hoped would last for life. But the choice of the word ‘grave’ was not a coincidence. Just before that relationship ended my mom was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer. I was travelling home as often as possible, but several factors prevented me from moving back there even though I didn’t want to be in Montréal. And thus, while I was trying to metaphorically lay to rest old things, I was literally laying to rest my mom. It was a wretched juxtaposition. I was living day by day, and I could feel every second.

I wanted the song titles to reflect the domestic scenes that dominated my life. I was thinking a lot about caregiving, and laboring for our loved ones. The titles recall the many hospital trips to see my mom - the giant automatic door of the bone marrow transplant ward, and the constant washing of hands. They recall also simple acts of cooking and cleaning – doing another’s dishes or sweeping the floor. The field recordings played a role here too. Family members started to visit while my mom was sick. I knew those moments were special and I wanted to capture them, so I anonymously recorded ourselves together. My justification for this was that these people were going to die someday, and this would be all I had left. The recordings reveal an ordinary tenderness and humor that I find beautiful.

I composed this album primarily using a eurorack modular synthesizer, cassette tape, field recordings, and improvised acoustic guitar. The guitar pieces were the result of living with roommates, and spending my nights quietly playing guitar in my room. More notably, this was my first album to feature modular synthesis in such a leading role. The instrument lent itself well to my new aphoristic style – there aren’t any ‘presets’ in a modular system. Rather they are volatile: once you turn off the system or unplug your patch, the sounds are essentially unrepeatable. They come and they go.

This wasn’t a record I ever intended to release. I didn’t create these pieces with the vision of an album in mind. At best they were sketches I made to forget about the contemporaneous moment. It wasn’t until Spring 2019 that I revisited the material, and I realized that there was a thread that tied it all together. Still, I hadn’t planned on doing anything with it. Ambient and experimental music can be extraordinarily boring. I just didn’t want to put anyone to sleep with another delay pedal outro or freeze effect. Moreover, without the straightforwardness of a human voice, or tension and release chord progressions it can be difficult to convey emotion in music. These pieces are emotional for me because I know what I was feeling when I composed them, but I worried that that wouldn’t translate. It wasn’t until I showed the work to my brother that I decided to release this record. He loved the work and encouraged me to see it through. I hope you do too.

- Alexander Stooshinoff,
Japan, February 2020

credits

released November 18, 2020

Written, Recorded, and Produced by Alexander Stooshinoff (Fall/Winter 2016 – 2017)
Piano samples on "Moment i" & "Moment ii" improvised by Craig Horan
String sample on "Your Wife, Your Husband" provided by Xavier Arocha-Leon
Mixed by Alexander Stooshinoff
Mastered by Bennett C. Dobni & Alexander Stooshinoff
Cover Photograph by Nicholas Stooshinoff, with editing by Kyle Grimsrud-Manz
Cover design by Alexander Stooshinoff & Kyle Grimsrud-Manz

Field Recordings Taken in:
Kyoto, Japan
Tokyo, Japan
Waskesiu, SK, Canada
Kipabiskau, SK, Canada
Saskatoon, SK, Canada
Montréal, QC Canada
Manizales, Colombia
and somewhere between Washington and Oregon, USA

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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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