Distant Correspondent - Distant Correspondent (12" Vinyl)
It started in secret. Distant Correspondent was
not a band, but one person: David Obuchowski, guitar player/singer for
critically acclaimed metal band, Goes Cube. Obuchowski had moved from
New York to Colorado, and decided to give a name to the non-metal songs he was
writing and recording in his basement. With 2000 miles between him and his old
home, he sent them to his friends back in New York under the name "Distant
Correspondent."
Everything changed when he met Michael Lengel in Denver. A
multi-instrumentalist, Lengel had been recording his own music for years, but
never released the songs publicly. With no discussion of what it should sound
like, what genre it should be, they collaborated; working separately,
Obuchowski handled all guitar and vocal parts, and Lengel covered all of the
drums and bass parts. "I thought I would have a somewhat shapeless and
atmospheric song, and then Michael would totally transform it into a tight,
driving, and dynamic song," Obuchowski recalls when they first started
writing together. The pair quickly recorded well over an album's worth of music
in a matter of a few short months.
With these songs, David reached out to a mysterious woman whose music he'd been
listening to obsessively for the last dozen years, but who he'd never met, and
knew nothing about: Emily Gray, the vocalist of John Peel-mainstays, Meanwhile
Back In Communist Russia. After finally reaching her and sending her the
music, she agreed to join the fold, and lend her haunting and moving monologues
to the music, all the way from Oxford, UK.
The lineup in place, the band set to work on writing more songs for a proper
album. For this, they tapped influential Drag City solo artist, Edith Frost,
who became a significant contributor, and took on the role as lead vocalist
alongside David Obuchowski, singing on songs the band had previously completed,
and helping to create new ones.
With the songs complete, Distant Correspondent would quickly cease to be
a secret: Maura Magazine wrote about the band and premiered the song
"Merge," calling it "moody, pulsing" and a "a lovely showcase
for the vocal interplay between Obuchowski and Frost." A music video for
their song "Summit" was premiered on Vice's NOISEY, where they
said award-winning director Heather Crank "took the band’s sorrowful four
and a half minutes of aching wistfulness and turned it into a gorgeous desert
Noir film." A third song, "Listen," was then premiered by Aquarium
Drunkard who described the song as "a wintery delight." And while
the band had yet to play a show, the premiere live music website Oh My
Rockness profiled the band, saying they "makes sparse, well-crafted
dream-ish pop that slowly taps and swirls its way toward melodies of the
haunting sublime."
Following the warm critical reception, Distant Correspondent signed to
Denver-based indie upstart Hot Congress Records who is co-releasing the
band's first full-length (digital and vinyl formats) with the established NYC
indie, Old Flame Records (Dead Confederate, Cloud Nothings, Twin Tigers,
and more). Word had also spread to the UK, and the Manchester-based indie Static
Caravan Recordings (Tuung, Hannah Peel, Laura Martin, and others) will be
releasing a limited-edition 7" single for their song "Shatter,"
a gorgeous, and brooding track that shows Frost at her vocal best, and the full
impact of Emily Gray's powerful narration.
Purchase of vinyl comes with instant digital download.