The Lost Album

James K

Things get lost once in awhile: bobby pins, sweaters, thoughts – something once so precious mysteriously disappears out of sight & out of mind. There’s something about loss. It’s got the potential to bend badly, yet it’s capable of enabling the possibility to be found. In a world where we’re continually overloaded with new music, it’s easy to forget the albums from the past, ones that shaped us the most. This month we’re asking NYC artist James K to dig into her musical archives and recover an album that touched the heart but was forgotten over time.

Full name: James Krasner
Artist Name: James K
Website: www.james-k.com www.zherocks.net www.soundcloud.com/jamesk_1

Which album did you find?

Grim, Message

When did you first listen to it?

Around the age of 19. I was really into Japanese noise from the 80s – Merzbow, Dissecting Table, White Hospital. This was the solo noise project of one of the musicians from White Hospital, but this album is completely folk-oriented, no noise.

Why did you want to recover this one?

Seems right for the time of year. It has an autumnal essence to it.

For fans of?

Late 80’s Japanese noise, weird folk music.

Favorite song on the album? 

‘Klara’s Song’. I find it very strange, and haunting. The voice and the melody have a semi-magical quality of sounding both young and old, innocent and tortured.

Don’t miss James K on Friday, 13 October at Goethe-Institut, Amsterdam together with Magic Island.