I’ve always enjoyed spending time in large, empty rooms, much like the one on the cover of Troy Schafer’s Untitled No. 3. Shooting jumpers alone after basketball practice is where I first discovered this. Exploring my grandparents’ cavernous basement was another early instance. These types of places have always felt right to me; have given me confidence in my isolation; safety in my solitude. Every smell and shadow matters. Each sound, heightened by it’s surrounding silence, impacts the experience more and more. Solace is obtainable within these rooms, and the possibility of insight seems infinite.
The sounds contained on Untitled No. 3 provide these feelings too. They remind me that each movement, each decision and action are equal in their solitude and importance. Schafer’s violin, the main instrument on the recordings, yells and squeals on side A of the cassette as gaps of silence mix with his acoustic performance, capturing the mood of the cover perfectly. While side B is a more processed, less organic mixture of hours and hours of recordings, it still helps to convey how a bouncing basketball, reverberating in a barren gym, can say more than a roomful of people ever could.
Copies of Untitled No. 3 are still available via the always impressive and one-of-a-kind dreambabe of a label, Cabin Floor Esoterica.
• Troy Schafer: https://troyallenschafer.bandcamp.com
• Cabin Floor Esoterica: http://www.cabin-floor-esoterica.com
More about: Troy Schafer
