Name: To Feel Embraced
Brand: Sparkle Division

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

TRR345cd

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music US

Limited edition

Release date

2020-10-23

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Secre­tly

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

656605334523

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Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Sparkle Division

Genre US

Electronic

Label US

Temporary Residence Ltd.

Sparkle Division is an innovative musical duo consisting of William Basinski and Preston Wendel. With their unique blend of electronic music, jazz, and experimental sounds, they create captivating and immersive sonic landscapes. Their music pushes boundaries and challenges traditional genres, resulting in a truly original listening experience.

William Basinski is a renowned composer known for his influential work in the ambient genre. His compositions often feature loops and tape manipulations that create mesmerizing textures and atmospheres. Preston Wendel is a talented multi-instrumentalist with a background in jazz and improvisation.

Together, Sparkle Division combines their individual talents to produce music that defies categorization. Their collaborative efforts result in intricate compositions that are both introspective and thought-provoking. Whether you're a fan of electronic music or looking to explore new sonic territories, Sparkle Division's music will undoubtedly captivate your senses.

A vibrant electronic fusion of lounge, jazz, and disco is maybe not the first (or fifth) thing you would expect to hear from one of the world’s most renowned modern composers and ambient tape loop pioneers, but upon first listen, it makes so much sense that one wonders why it didn’t happen sooner. 

After years of producing and mentoring slews of young artists in 1990s Williamsburg, Brooklyn, William Basinski moved to Los Angeles. There he hired a young studio assistant, Preston Wendel, who eventually introduced his own works to the curious composer. That spawned a creative partnership that inspired Wendel to persuade Basinski to haul out his saxophone. Five years later, SPARKLE DIVISION has arrived with their enchanting debut album, To Feel Embraced.

Produced by SPARKLE DIVISION at Basinski’s Musex International in Los Angeles, the duo were joined by a few notable friends: Mrs. Leonora Russo (who Basinski affectionately calls “the true Sicilian Sparkle Division, my Brooklyn Mom, the Queen of Williamsburg”) offers her sparkling voice to “Queenie Got Her Blues”; fabled free-jazz icon and genuine bodhisattva, the late Henry Grimes, contributed upright bass and violin to the aptly-named “Oh Henry!” (“Lotta babies gonna be born from this one,” Henry and Margaret Davis Grimes playfully declared); and London vocalist Xeli Grana offers her ethereal voice to the album’s meditative title track. Conceived and nearly completed in 2016, the increasing environmental and political infernos gave Basinski and Wendel cold feet about unleashing a record intended to be fun, loving, and prone to bouts of euphoria. But as Basinski exclaimed, “Well, damn it, if the time ain't right now, it never will be! Let’s do this!”

To Feel Embraced

Music US

Buy SPARKLE DIVISION - To Feel Embraced (Vinyl, CD) now from Rough Trade - independent purveyors of great music, since 1976.