Last year Thurston Moore was invited to perform at the New Music Dublin Festival. At the fest, Moore and his band of Alex Ward, Deb Googe, Jen Schande, and Jem Doulton performed gorgeous, noisy compositions based on some homemade sketches by Moore. Today, those original home recordings are released under the name Guitar Explorations Of Cloud Formations.
"Dear everyone, it is my pleasure to bring some new peace + noise reflections, refractions and sonic vibrations into our new year," Moore writes in an email to his Bandcamp followers. "As we rise up against the violence and tyranny of the right wing fascism creeping across our countries let us find solace, soul and power in art, music, poetry, prayer, friendship, activism, and love."
The album's Bandcamp page has an inscription from Moore's wife, Eva Marie Moore:
Guitar Explorations of Cloud Formations is inspired by the sentient sky-scapes across Ireland, England and Wales. Life on the islands offers constant shared consciousness, whether it be a foggy morning with low visibility, or in the darkening moments preparing our villages for a menacing storm—we live and breathe in the shared castles and clubhouses of the air.
There are also Moore words from Thurston:
This album consists primarily of the sketches I recorded utilizing various electric guitars and a drum machine for a commissioned concert of exclusive music prepared for the 2025 edition of the New Music Dublin Festival which I was honored to be invited to. While there are six pieces here, the concert itself featured nine pieces, and was an ensemble featuring Alex Ward (guitar and clarinet), Deb Googe (bass and guitar), Jen Schande (guitar), Jem Doulton (percussion) and myself (guitar). A live recording of the concert exists and may someday be released but, for now, I'd like to share these rather spartan home recordings as they were entirely meditational in construction whilst channeling the political reality of our relationship to the climate and nature of Earth and its heavens.
It is incredible to imagine being suspended inside a cloud and hearing this stuff. Listen below.
Guitar Explorations Of Cloud Formations is out now digitally, apparently exclusive to Bandcamp.
