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Perform the Compositions of Sam Wilkes & Jacob Mann

by Sam Wilkes & Jacob Mann

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virgimarine
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virgimarine Every time I listen to it, it brings me so many memories and lots of joy. A really well crafted album where you can feel the effort put into every song. Had the chance to attend one of the gigs at the Church of Sound in London which for me, was one of the most memorable shows I've been so far. Not only because of the engagement of the audience but also the level of intimacy reached by these two. Favorite track: Next To.
Karl Gunselman
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Karl Gunselman This is a really fun and casual album to listen to. I love winding down at night listening to this and watching Mandelbrot sets. Favorite track: Dr. T.
World of Echo
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World of Echo This is my favorite release from either of them. They should make more music together because this is a great album from start to finish. Recommended!
zaque
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zaque This album really just makes me happy. I love what Jacob and Sam do for each other’s sounds, bringing both groove and nostalgia. And I’ve been waiting for “Siri…” since the online quarantine concert :’) Thank you boys so much for the music. Favorite track: Siri, How Do I Know If I Have Commitment Issues?.
mjohnson1898
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mjohnson1898 This album is joyous. Every song is an exploration of 2 musicians on a playground: there's tag, there is climbing, there is playing in the shadows of the slide, and ice cream afterwards. An introspective, groovy album of compliments and care. Favorite track: The Cricket Club.
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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $11 USD  or more

     

  • "RECOMMENDATION EDITION" TAPES
    Cassette + Digital Album

    - limited to 50 cassettes with alternate cover art work: a stick figure self portrait of Sam and Jacob, illustrated by Jacob Mann on his iPad.
    - **in lieu of insert artwork on the back of the J Card, this edition instead, features a list of Sam and Jacob’s shared favorite albums; LPs that the 2 bonded over during the course of their friendship. *Recommended Listening*
    - probably will come with a baseball card
    - design By Miles Wintner & Sam Wilkes
    - formatting by Phoebe Mapes-Frances
    - illustrations by Jacob Mann
    - digital download emailed a week early (sept16)

    Includes unlimited streaming of Perform the Compositions of Sam Wilkes & Jacob Mann via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • MARBLED CREAMSICLE VINYLS
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    **SHIPPING MARCH 2023**

    - orange & cream marbled vinyl
    - limited to 100 (no re-press)
    - design by Miles Wintner
    - 12x12 insert: solitaire credits / tour photo diary
    - orange paper inner-sleeve (not shown but you believe us right?)
    - digital download emailed a week early (sept16)

    Includes unlimited streaming of Perform the Compositions of Sam Wilkes & Jacob Mann via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • DODGER BLUE VINYLS
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    - dodger blue vinyl (like the sports team)
    - limited to 100 (no re-press)
    - design by Miles Wintner
    - 12x12 insert: solitaire credits / tour photo diary
    - orange paper inner-sleeve (not shown, forgot to mock it up)

    Includes unlimited streaming of Perform the Compositions of Sam Wilkes & Jacob Mann via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • VINYLS
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    - black vinyl
    - edition of 800
    - design by Miles Wintner
    - 12x12 insert: solitaire credits / tour photo diary
    - orange paper inner-sleeve

    Includes unlimited streaming of Perform the Compositions of Sam Wilkes & Jacob Mann via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • TEST PRESSING VINYLS
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    *STRICT EDITION OF 11*
    *APPROVED 12" VINYL TEST PRESSINGS*
    *SEALED*
    *NOW SHIPPING*

    Includes unlimited streaming of Perform the Compositions of Sam Wilkes & Jacob Mann via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • TAPES
    Cassette + Digital Album

    - we made 300 of these
    - inside/back of JCard includes credits & cute photo
    - design by Miles Wintner & Sam Wilkes
    - illustrations by Jacob Mann

    Includes unlimited streaming of Perform the Compositions of Sam Wilkes & Jacob Mann via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

1.
2.
Jakarta 03:38
3.
4.
Yes It Is 02:44
5.
Next To 03:15
6.
Homeric 03:45
7.
Dr. T 02:33
8.
9.
Soft Landing 03:09
10.
Warm Regards 01:35
11.
Pre-Board 01:49
12.
Someday 03:22
13.

about

Of all the things that can and should and will be said of Sam Wilkes’ & Jacob Mann’s Perform the Compositions of Sam Wilkes & Jacob Mann, let’s begin at the beginning and acknowledge that it is an aptly named record indeed. An ideal collaborative effort (which is to say, greater than the sum of its parts), here we have two longtime friends, two luminaries of the New Weird Los Angeles — the experimental, genre-encompassing underground—who have, at last, devoted a full-length record to their signature musical admixture.

Since their meeting as USC music students (Wilkes studied bass, and Mann, jazz/piano), the two have, with a kind of ceaseless abandon, chased the music to the ends the earth — oftentimes quite literally; travel is a recurrent theme in Compositions’ track titles (Pre-board, Soft Landing, and Around the Horn), and the record’s second track, Jakarta, was sketched out in a hotel room in the city of the same name, where Wilkes and Mann were performing at a jazz festival in 2019. Having initially bonded over a mutual and abiding appreciation for the Soulquarians, the two have spent over a decade playing and traveling, together and separately, their styles coevolving all the while.

Across its thirteen tracks, Compositions captures the relaxed creative flow of two consummate musicians. Most of the record’s sessions (“four-to-five-day summits” in an apartment studio, occasioned by “blasts of inspiration”) began with casual improvisation, and, indeed, roughly half of the final material was composed in this manner: Wilkes and Mann squaring off, a Yamaha DX7 facing a Roland Juno 106, alternating leads, two co-pilots with no set course. And though the songs are polished to a shine, there are artifacts of the intimacy of these sessions. Yes It Is concludes with a snippet of just-intelligible studio chatter: “…A flat minor, then A major.” A figuring-it-out-as-we-go moment that briefly renders explicit the warmth, friendship, and creative freedom that is the album’s heart.

The duo has quipped that Compositions is Mann’s most “serious” project, while simultaneously being Wilkes’ most “light-hearted” — somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but there are certainly two distinct sensibilities at play across Compositions. Their aesthetics collide, coalesce, and diverge, often in a single song. Then the process starts anew. The album begins with the whimsical (exuberant, even!) glitched-out Cricket Club and ends on a note of quiet contentment with Wichita Wilkes, an Earth, Wind, and Fire x shoegaze fever dream.

That Compositions coheres as well as it does is a testament to Wilkes’ and Mann’s shared vernacular. Both have expressed a tendency to communicate their musical ideas linguistically, posing questions like “what would the woodwinds be doing here?” Though only the two musicians are credited, the ensemble conjured by their combined imaginary feels infinite.

credits

released September 23, 2022

- Composed, Performed, Recorded, and produced by Sam Wilkes & Jacob Mann
- Recorded in Sam's Apartment
- Mixed by Sam Wilkes
- Mastered by Matthewdavid McQueen & Sam Wilkes
- designed by Miles Wintner
- photography by Roman Koval

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Sam Wilkes & Jacob Mann Los Angeles, California

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