Tanakh is the name of a
musical collective
Musical collective is a phrase used to describe a group of musicians in which membership is flexible and creative control is shared.Liisa Ladouceur"Collegjthk ctive Souls" ''This Magazine'', November/December 2004. The concept is distinct from th ...
from
Richmond, Virginia
(Thus do we reach the stars)
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, map_caption = Location within Virginia
, pushpin_map = Virginia#USA
, pushpin_label = Richmond
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as well as a reference to the music produced by the group. The collective was formed in 2000 by its primary songwriter, producer and recording engineer
Jesse Poe.
Background
Poe and Phil Murphy were then working as apprentices under
John Morand
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...
at
Sound of Music Studios to improve their recording skills. The two musicians would take turn recording each other after hours at the studio, using whatever instruments happened to be left around. This included many international instruments that
Joan Osborne
Joan Elizabeth Osborne (born July 8, 1962) is an American singer, songwriter, and interpreter of music, having recorded and performed in various popular American musical genres including rock, pop, soul, R&B, blues, and country. She is best kn ...
had recently left in studio. They would layer track upon track taking turns recording while the other played, and vice versa; some recordings from this time appeared on the bonus CD with the band's 2002 debut album ''Villa Claustrophobia''. They also composed and recorded the score for
Andrew Carnwath
Sir Andrew Hunter Carnwath Royal Victorian Order, KCVO Deputy Lieutenant, DL (26 October 1909 – 29 December 1995) was a British banker. He was managing director, Baring Brothers & Co. Ltd, 1955–1974; and chairman of the London Multination ...
's silent film ''Greater Than Half'' which won The Audience Choice Award at Bare Bones International and the Rosebud Film Festival in Washington, D.C.
The duo began to perform live using analogue loops created live on stage with old tape machines and half broken equipment they salvaged from the Sound of Music equipment graveyards and thrift stores. Frustrated with limitations of analogue looping, they enlisted the help of Jeff 'Sanford' Krones, who lived with Poe at the
Pyramid Institute, an abandoned
Shriners
Shriners International, formally known as the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (AAONMS), is an American Masonic society established in 1870 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida.
Shriners International describes itself ...
Temple atop the collapsed
Church Hill Tunnel
Church Hill Tunnel is an old Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) tunnel, built in the early 1870s, which extends approximately under the Church Hill district of Richmond, Virginia, United States. On October 2, 1925, the tunnel collapsed on a wor ...
, and Pat Best of
Pelt
Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an insulating blanket t ...
. This quartet formed the core of the original Tanakh collective, playing live shows and recording improvisations at the Pyramid Institute and Sound of Music Studios along with many guests who joined performances as they were available.
Inspired in part by
John Zorn
John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". Zorn's avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jaz ...
's
Tzadik
Tzadik ( he, צַדִּיק , "righteous ne, also ''zadik'', ''ṣaddîq'' or ''sadiq''; pl. ''tzadikim'' ''ṣadiqim'') is a title in Judaism given to people considered righteous, such as biblical figures and later spiritual masters. The ...
label, Poe and Murphy's original idea was to provide a name that they could perform under and that anyone who they liked to play could perform or record under, with their dream being that there might be two or three Tanakh shows at the same time in different geographic locations. The band's self-titled 2004 EP on
Alien8 Recordings
Alien8 Recordings is an independent record label founded in 1996 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The label was founded by Sean O'Hara and Gary Worsley.
The label released material from prominent noise artists such as Merzbow, Think About Life, A ...
came from a Pyramid Institute performance recorded by
Bryan Hoffa who would later start a band
Broken Hips with Murphy on guitar, and various instruments. This instrumental double disc was later mixed and mastered by
King Crimson
King Crimson are a progressive rock band formed in 1968 in London, England. The band draws inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, industrial, electronic, experime ...
engineer Ronan Chris Murphy.
After initial plans to record a studio effort fell through due to other commitments, Poe worked as an engineer in Berlin at the
Schaubu:hne am Halleschen Ufer before returning to record ''Villa Claustrophobia'' with
Brian Paulson
Brian Paulson is an American musician, record producer and audio engineer from Minnesota, best known for recording albums by Slint, Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, Superchunk and Wilco.
Paulson grew up in Bemidji, Minnesota, but moved about 200 miles sou ...
as engineer and with previous Tanakh guest performers such as the
Dirty Three
Dirty Three is an Australian instrumental rock band, consisting of Warren Ellis (violin and bass guitar), Mick Turner (electric and bass guitars) and Jim White (drums), which formed in 1992. Their 1996 album ''Horse Stories'' was voted by ''Ro ...
's
Mick Turner
Mick Turner (born 1960) is an Australian musician and artist. He is the founding mainstay guitarist for Dirty Three and has had art exhibitions around Australia and internationally. Previously he was a member of the Sick Things, the Moodists (1 ...
,
Anomoanon/Palace member
Ned Oldham and
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar (; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, sometimes spelled as Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury; 7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012) was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known export of North Ind ...
associate
Nirmal Bajekal
Nirmal is a town and the district headquarters of Nirmal district in the Indian state of Telangana. It is famed for its toys made out of wood.
The district headquarters is located in the town of Nirmal. It borders the Telangana districts of A ...
. Via Turner and Oldham's brother
Will Oldham
Joseph Will Oldham (born January 15, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter and actor. From 1993 to 1997, he performed and recorded in collaboration with dozens of other musicians under variations of Palace (Palace, Palace Flophouse, Palace Br ...
, members of
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Godspeed You! Black Emperor (sometimes abbreviated to GY!BE or Godspeed) is a Canadian post-rock band which originated in Montreal, Quebec in 1994. The group releases recordings through Constellation, an independent record label also located i ...
heard the album, leading Montreal label Alien8 to contact Poe and sign Tanakh. ''Villa Claustrophobia'' was released in April 2002 to a variety of positive reviews, including
Mark Richardson in
Pitchfork Media
''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog.
Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...
and
Ian Penman
Ian Penman (born 1959) is a British writer, music journalist and critic. He began his career as a writer for the ''NME'' in 1977, later contributing to various publications including ''Uncut'', ''Sight & Sound'', ''The Wire'', '' The Face'', a ...
in
''The Wire''.
Various line-ups of Tanakh performed and toured from this point forward, with a new key member being bassist/singer
Michele Poulos, who Poe met around the time of ''Villa Claustrophobias release. Poe, Poulos and a further core group of performers, including
Agents of Good Roots
Agents of Good Roots is an American rock band from Richmond, Virginia.
The group formed in 1995 and toured heavily on college campuses in the middle of the decade. They independently released two records before signing to RCA Records, after whic ...
drummer Brian Jones and guests
Jim White and
Sparklehorse
Sparklehorse was an American indie rock band from Richmond, Virginia, led by singer and multi-instrumentalist Mark Linkous. Sparklehorse was active from 1995 until Linkous' 2010 death. Prior to forming Sparklehorse, Linkous fronted local bands ...
associate/producer Alan Weatherhead, recorded the band's third full album ''Dieu Deuil,'' released in early 2004 on Alien8.
Poe relocated to Italy prior to the release of ''Dieu Deuil'' after the offer of an ESL teaching job in Florence; further Tanakh performances and tours were based out that city for the next few years. Most of Tanakh's fourth album, 2006's ''Ardent Fevers,'' was written in Italy but recorded in Richmond by Hoffa during a return visit to the city in the summer of 2004. Guest performers on ''Ardent Fevers'' included
Isobel Campbell
Isobel Campbell (born 27 April 1976) is a Scottish singer, songwriter and cellist. She rose to prominence at age nineteen as a member of the indie pop band Belle & Sebastian, but left the group to pursue a solo career, first as The Gentle Waves ...
and
Alex Neilson
Alex Neilson (born 22 September 1982) is an English drummer, percussionist and singer who is based in Glasgow but grew up in Leeds. He is a founding member and main songwriter of folk-rock group Trembling Bells (2008-2018). He is also known for ...
, who had been introduced to Poe by
Alasdair Roberts after the two had played shows together in Scotland.
Taken from the same recording period as the ''Ardent Fevers'' sessions, Tanakh's fifth album, the 2007 release ''Saunders Hollow,'' was distinctly different from the collective's previous work in that Poulos was the lead vocalist throughout, with Poe concentrating on producing and performing and Hoffa once again recording an expanded lineup of the band, again featuring Campbell and Neilson as guest performers. ''Saunders Hollow'' was also unique in being released on Australian label
Camera Obscura
A camera obscura (; ) is a darkened room with a aperture, small hole or lens at one side through which an image is 3D projection, projected onto a wall or table opposite the hole.
''Camera obscura'' can also refer to analogous constructions su ...
rather than Alien8, home to all the band's previous releases.
Other than singles on compilations, no further Tanakh releases have appeared since ''Saunders Hollow'' but the collective has continued to perform irregularly, including the opening set at the sixth
Terrastock
Terrastock is a music festival organised periodically by Phil McMullen, formerly editor of the ''Ptolemaic Terrascope'' and since 2005 the publisher of the Terrascope Online website. The event typically features independent bands playing psyche ...
festival in Providence, Rhode Island in April 2006 and a one-off performance at the seventh Terrastock festival in Louisville, Kentucky in June 2008. This latter performance featured a unique lineup of Poe,
Acid Mothers Temple
Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., commonly shortened to Acid Mothers Temple or AMT, is a Japanese psychedelic rock band, the core of which formed in 1995. The band is led by guitarist Kawabata Makoto and early in their career feat ...
lead figure
Kawabata Makoto
Kawabata Makoto ( ) is a Japanese musician and founding member of the band Acid Mothers Temple. He was part of one line-up of Gong when Acid Mothers Temple and Gong briefly fused into one group.
Band history
Kawabata is chiefly famous for his l ...
and members of
Abunai!
Abunai! was an American rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, United States primarily active from 1996 to 2001 on the Australian Camera Obscura record label.
History
The band formed in 1996 after the four members began performing extended imp ...
and United Bible Studies.
As of summer 2010 Poe is reported to be working on a series of collaborative singles; it is not certain if they will appear under the Tanakh name.
Discography
* ''Villa Claustrophobia'' (released April 2002 on
Alien8 Recordings
Alien8 Recordings is an independent record label founded in 1996 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The label was founded by Sean O'Hara and Gary Worsley.
The label released material from prominent noise artists such as Merzbow, Think About Life, A ...
)
* ''Dieu Deuil'' (released January 28, 2004 on Alien8 Recordings)
* ''Tanakh'' EP (released September 20, 2004 on Alien8 Recordings)
* ''Ardent Fevers'' (released March 7, 2006 on Alien8 Recordings)
* ''Saunders Hollow'' (released February 14, 2007 on
Camera Obscura
A camera obscura (; ) is a darkened room with a aperture, small hole or lens at one side through which an image is 3D projection, projected onto a wall or table opposite the hole.
''Camera obscura'' can also refer to analogous constructions su ...
)
References
External links
Tanakh bio page hosted at Alien8 recordings, band's label
*
Tanakh on MySpaceReview of ''Saunders Hollow''at
Pitchfork Media
''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog.
Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanakh
Musical groups established in 2000
Musical groups from Virginia
Musical collectives
Alien8 Recordings artists