The People Under the Sun

Winter's

1. "The State of Things (Self-Portrait)"

2. "Hell and Earth"

3. "Hone the Earth"

4. "I, I... (Prelude)"

5. "Sing Song (Part 1)"

6. "I, I..." / "Sing Song (Part 2)"

7. "Love and Social Death"

8. "Love and Social Death (Coda)"

Winter's is the first record by The People Under the Sun, recording alias of Justin Kaw. The record consists entirely of Kaw's vocals, recorded live without effects, except for "Love and Social Death," where a compressor was used. Some tracks consist of vocal parts over-dubbed to accompany each other, while others are bare, straight-to-tape performances. The record features songs, improvisations, and sound-poetry (or poetry-sound, as Kaw terms it). Yet, it explores the space among these three categories than it offers examples of each; such is the nature of the human voice, and of the language it speaks when it is instead sung. A song, like the opening track here, "The State of Things (Self-Portrait)," with words written before the fact and its performance rehearsed beforehand as well, would to those who do not speak English be sound-poetry/poetry-sound. Yet as far as Kaw is concerned, "Hone the Earth" features examples of the latter, for he improvised the varied vocal parts contained therein, and while in some of them he sounds like he is intoning words - English words - he was not actually. Not at first. Words then did start to come out, including "hone," "the," and, "earth," forming the eventual title.

The beginning portion of "Hone the Earth" - the high-pitched squeals and growls - was an improvisation, as is "I, I..." and the two parts that form the bulk of "Hell and Earth." "Sing Song," like "The State of Things," was written and arranged before being recorded. "Love and Social Death" is another creature entirely: beginning only with the first two lines ("And it seems fate has brought us together / And yet it had carried us so far apart") Kaw improvised the rest of the song, in real time: allowing the words to travel from the sub-conscious (super-conscious? ....wherever they might've been, or not...) to reach consciousness/fruition in the form of Kaw singing into a microphone, alone, in the Athens, Georgia house he grew up in.

Order copies here via Pay Pal. The album is also available to purchase in Athens, Georgia, at Wuxtry Records [197 E. Clayton St.] and Schoolkids Records [264 E. Clayton St.].

Cardboard fold-out sleeve, paper insert, Mitsui C D R, and two sticker-paper prints (front and back cover). 40+ minutes. $6.00, including shipping costs.